PSG stars bring the Champions League trophy to the French Open

PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain took its Champions League success to the French Open on Monday when Ballon d'Or winner Ousmane Dembele and three teammates raised the trophy for tennis fans.

Dembele and his France teammates Bradley Barcola, Warren Zaire-Emery and Desire Doue received a standing ovation from tennis fans as they took to the sun-drenched Philippe-Chatrier court.

PSG won Europe's most prestigious club competition for a second straight year on Saturday after beating Arsenal in a tense final which finished with a penalty shootout.

PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi was also present at Roland Garros stadium, which is located in western Paris close to PSG's own arena, the Parc des Princes. A former tennis player, the 52-year-old Al-Khelaïfi played two ATP tour matches, including a loss to 1995 French Open champion Thomas Muster, and played for Qatar in the Davis Cup.

Sporting sunglasses, Dembele shouted “Ici c’est Paris!” (This is Paris!) — one of the favorite chants of PSG fans. Some of the crowd joined in a loud rendition of it.

“We worked every day throughout the season to win this trophy once again,” Dembele said. “We'll try to win another one next season but before that there is the World Cup with the France team.”

France is among the favorites of the World Cup starting June 11 in Mexico, Canada and the United States.

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

PSG's Desire Doue, left, and Warren Zaire-Emery walk onto the center court with Chgampions league trophy at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

PSG's Desire Doue, left, and Warren Zaire-Emery walk onto the center court with Chgampions league trophy at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

PSG's Ousmane Dembele, left, and Bradley Barcola walk onto the court with the Champions League trophy during the French Open in Paris, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

PSG's Ousmane Dembele, left, and Bradley Barcola walk onto the court with the Champions League trophy during the French Open in Paris, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Paris Saint-Germain players Bradley Barcola, left, Warren Zaire-Emery, center, Desire Doue, right, and Ousmane Dembele, rear, present two Champions League trophies at the French Open in Paris, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Bombastic pro-Trump lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella pulled ahead in Colombia’s presidential race in the first round of elections over the weekend, capitalizing on a growing appetite for crackdowns on criminal groups across Latin America.

Second-place finisher, progressive Sen. Iván Cepeda, and his ally, President Gustavo Petro, have questioned the election results, without providing evidence.

Cepeda on Monday called on de la Espriella to debate him ahead of their June 21 runoff. De la Espriella replied on X: “Are you ready, coward? … First, acknowledge the election results and let’s debate right now.”

De la Espriella rapidly gained traction ahead of Sunday’s election and won nearly 44% of the vote. Cepeda, who had consistently led polling, won less than 41%.

In the runoff, De la Espriella is expected to scoop up additional votes from Colombians who supported other conservative candidates in the first round.

Cepeda will face an uphill battle, said Sergio Guzmán, a political analyst. De la Espriella's win is "a shift in public opinion that is very difficult to overcome. So now Abelardo is emerging as the likely favorite to win.”

Markets in Colombia and the Colombian peso jumped on Monday, likely a product of de la Espriella’s proposal to roll back regulations on businesses and willingness to open the country to fracking — a sharp turn from Petro’s environmental agenda.

The 47-year-old De la Espriella, known as “El Tigre” or “The Tiger,” has never held office in Colombia and prided himself on living a luxurious life in Italy before deciding to run for president.

He pitched himself as an outsider who would cozy up to U.S. President Donald Trump and follow El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's war on gangs, which has driven down homicide rates but fueled accusations of human rights abuses.

“I will wipe out narcoterrorism and those who I've declared a military target like cockroaches, like rats. I will unleash upon them the wrath of God never seen before,” de la Espriella said in an interview with The Associated Press in the final stretch of the campaign, where he promised to open 10 mega-prisons to fight crime.

He joins a growing number of leaders across Latin America, from Chile to Honduras, seeking to latch onto the “Bukele model” as voters across Latin America are ditching leaders who pitched progressive policies aimed at addressing the root issues of conflict such as lack of opportunities for young people and corruption.

De la Espriella's supporters come from a wide range of backgrounds. Yolanda Peréz, a 64-year-old woman serving coffee in Colombia's capital, Bogotá, said with a wink the day before the election: “I'm thinking of voting for El Tigre.”

Miguel Maheca, a 20-year-old first-time voter, flashed his ballot to his mother as he strolled out of the polling station on Sunday, saying with a grin, “Love isn't what's going to make us safe in Colombia."

But experts say El Salvador's security successes will be nearly impossible to replicate in a country like Colombia, which is more than 50 times larger than the Central American nation and has many more armed groups fighting for territory.

The Trump administration is playing a more aggressive role in Latin America than any U.S. government in decades, putting mounting pressure on countries like Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador to crack down on crime.

De la Espriella made a name for himself as a lawyer defending high-profile clients such as former President Álvaro Uribe as well as controversial figures like Alex Saab, a close ally of Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolás Maduro who faces legal issues in the U.S.

The progressive Cepeda has promised to carry on his ally Petro's fraught plan to achieve “total peace” by negotiating peace pacts with guerrillas and criminal gangs.

Their political movement was born from a rejection by many Colombians of a militarized offensive by Uribe in decades past to beat back guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Thousands of civilians were killed by Colombian forces in a scandal known as “false positives.”

De la Espriella “represents a return to the paramilitary politics and drug-trafficking — a mafia-run, plutocratic and corrupt past that the country experienced during Álvaro Uribe’s two administrations,” Cepeda said on Sunday.

Petro, a former rebel, won Colombia's presidency in 2022, ending decades of domination by leaders from Uribe's political movement. He gained massive support from rural-dwelling, Indigenous and poorer Colombians who felt they had never been directly spoken to by the country's leaders.

Now that movement is backed into a corner.

“This is de la Espriella’s election to lose,” wrote Renata Segura, director of International Crisis Group's Latin America and the Caribbean Program. “Cepeda thought he could win appealing squarely to the left, and that proved to be a massive mistake. How he pivots in the next month will determine if he has any chance to win.”

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

This version corrects the spelling of the first name of the leading candidate to Abelardo.

Soldiers guard during the presidential election in Santander de Quilichao, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)

Supporters of presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda of the ruling Historic Pact coalition gather outside the polling station where he voted during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement addresses supporters from inside a bulletproof booth after leading the first round of the presidential election and advancing to a runoff in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Supporters of presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda of the ruling Historic Pact coalition react as presidential election results are announced in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda of the ruling Historic Pact coalition addresses supporters after advancing to a runoff election in second place in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix) CORRECTION: Corrects Paloma Valencia to Ivan Cepeda, and photographer Jose Vargas to Matias Delacroix

Presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement addresses supporters from inside a bulletproof booth after leading the first round of the presidential election and advancing to a runoff in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Supporters of presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement celebrate election results in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement depart a polling station after voting during the presidential election in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)