PARIS: Paris St Germain have signed defender Milan Skriniar and forward Marco Asensio on free transfers, the Ligue 1 champions announced on Thursday.

Slovakian Skriniar was signed on a five-year deal, with his Inter Milan contract having expired in June.“There is always pressure when you join a club like Paris St Germain. I feel it a little bit,” Skriniar told PSG’s website. “But I feel that I am ready, ready to be part of this very big club.

“I like pressure. I’m a defender so we know what it’s like, you always have to be ready.”

Former Real Madrid attacker Asensio was signed on a three-year deal until 2026, PSG said.

The 27-year-old made 51 appearances for Real across all competitions last season, scoring 12 goals, but was used mainly as a substitute.

Skriniar and Asensio are PSG’s first signings of the transfer window, announced a day after the club appointed Luis Enrique as manager to replace Christophe Galtier.

Earlier on Wednesday, French police raided the home of Paris St-Germain boss Nasser Al-Khelaifi in an investigation into a man’s claims of detention and torture in Qatar.

Franco-Algerian Tayeb Benabderrahmane, 42, filed a complaint in January saying he was arrested in January 2020 in Qatar, where he had recently moved to work as a lobbyist.

Benabderrahmane said he was held for six months and questioned by local police, particularly about documents they believed he held that could prove compromising for Al-Khelaifi, a Qatari national.

Initially released to house arrest, he claims he was finally allowed to leave Qatar in November 2020 after signing a non-disclosure agreement covering the documents.

A note from France’s DGSI domestic intelligence service suggests that the documents could include intimate videos of Al-Khelaifi with a woman.

Conversations between Al-Khelaifi, a former FIFA secretary-general and Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, saved in an old smartphone of his, might also touch on how the Gulf monarchy secured the 2022 World Cup and the allocation of TV rights to the competition, the DGSI note says.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2023