The Emirati developer BEYOND, Paris Saint-Germain’s jersey sponsor through 2029, officially announced its entry into the French market on July 8 during an event at the Parc des Princes. This entry strategy focuses on sports rather than real estate.
Sponsorship Precedes Market Entry
BEYOND Developments is not entering France on unfamiliar ground. Through a partnership running through 2029, the developer is already the premium jersey sponsor of Paris Saint-Germain—a position that offers it far greater visibility in France than a simple launch press release could. The event held on July 8 at the Parc des Princes, bringing together more than 150 investors and executives alongside former Parisian forward Guillaume Hoarau, therefore does not mark the beginning of a relationship with the French market, but rather its formalization.
A well-established strategy in sports
Using soccer as a gateway to a Western market is not unique to BEYOND. Qatar has controlled PSG itself since 2011 through Qatar Sports Investments, Abu Dhabi has owned Manchester City since 2008, and Gulf airlines — Emirates with Real Madrid, Etihad with Manchester City — have built their European profiles on decades of jersey sponsorships before expanding into direct commercial activities on the continent. BEYOND follows a model similar to that of real estate: the jersey comes before the catalog; visibility comes before sales.
Figures that precede market entry
Even before opening a sales office in France, BEYOND had already recorded 612 million dirhams (approximately 150 million euros) in sales to French buyers, who rank among the brand’s top 10 customers worldwide. Group-wide, cumulative sales have reached 16 billion dirhams—approximately $4.4 billion—since its founding in 2024, spread across twelve projects. This growth is part of a broader bilateral trend: France is now Dubai’s third-largest European trading partner, with trade volumes up 120% over the past five years.
Land Use as a Selling Point
From an urban planning perspective, BEYOND highlights a ratio that contrasts sharply with the image of vertical density often associated with Dubai’s urban development: 70% of the total area of its projects is dedicated to nature and open spaces. This is a selling point that the developer has chosen to emphasize as a priority to its French clientele, in a Parisian market where land available for this type of development remains structurally scarce.
The choice of the Parc des Princes over a traditional real estate trade show is no coincidence either: by bringing together investors and executives at the stadium of the club it sponsors, BEYOND turns the stadium itself into a selling point—a way to physically embody the connection between the jersey and the brand even before it has laid a single brick in France.
It remains to be seen whether this entry into the sports sector will translate, in the coming months, into concrete real estate transactions in France, or whether it will remain merely a visibility strategy without any local follow-through.
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