When Luis Enrique takes the helm of his Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) team to Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final against Inter Milan, the coach will be aiming to win the French national team’s top prize for the first time and end years of fan dissatisfaction there.
This is the club which, until recently, boasted superstar players the caliber of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr, but failed to win any European silverware since the third-tier UEFA Intertoto Cup way back in 2001.
Enrique has radically altered PSG since his arrival in 2023, overseeing Messi’s undoubted exits, Neymar’s, and Mbappe, and made the transition from a team of aging galacticos to one of Europe’s most exciting attacking sides.
What happens in the Champions League final in Munich will determine whether Enrique’s strategy is effective.
Enrique the player
Who is the real Luis Enrique, who led this radical change at PSG, away from the actual events of the pitch?
The 55-year-old started his football career in 1988 by playing for Sporting Gijon, a team from the Spanish Segunda Division.
In 1991 he was signed by mega club Real Madrid where he helped Los Blancos win La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Super Cup. Enrique struggled to live up to expectations, which is primarily due to his playing in more defensive roles and positional shifts.
In 1996, bitter rivals FC Barcelona acquired Enrique, who had lost his preferred central midfield position.  , It paid dividends for the Catalan giants and Enrique went on to win La Liga, the Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup trophies with Barca.
He left the game in 2004 and joined management, according to reports from Pep Guardiola, the current Manchester City manager.
Enrique began his coaching career at FC Barcelona “B” before joining AS Roma in the 2011-2012 campaign. The Spaniard was sacked at the end of the season, with a year still remaining on his contract, after Roma finished a disappointing seventh in the premier domestic competition.
Managing expectations
His next move was to Spanish La Liga side Celta Vigo – but he also departed from that club after just one year. Enrique re-entered Barcelona as the first team manager, which was the moment that changed his managerial career.
The “Big-3” of Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar led the attacking line in the Champions League final in 2015, completing a rare treble for the club: Spanish League (La Liga), Spanish Cup (Copa del Rey), and European (Champions League) titles. Barca won the trophy in 2015 with a victory in the Champions League final against Juventus, completing his four-year reign at the Nou Camp.
If PSG win the Champions League final on Saturday, Enrique will make history be becoming the only man to ever achieve a treble on two occasions.
Enrique made his first international football team-building debut when he was appointed Spain’s 2018 coach.
Spain was anticipated to win the FIFA World Cup in Qatar 2022. However, after a crushing round of 16 loss to underdogs Morocco, Enrique announced his resignation from the national side.
Enrique’s next managerial position was reportedly linked to a move to England’s Premier League, according to persistent media speculation.
Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea spoke with him, but it was PSG, much to the surprise of many, that signed him.
Perhaps it was the unique challenge of winning the Champions League with one of only two European super clubs never to have achieved the milestone – Arsenal being the other – which made him head to Paris.
Perhaps it was a desire to show off his vision of attacking football by rebuilding a team his way.
Take me to Paris
Enrique’s well-known animosity toward the media was revealed in a recent three-part documentary produced by Zoom Sport Films that captured an intimate look at the coach.
You Don’t Have Any F****** Idea (You Don’t Have Any F****** Idea) exposes a determined man who shares his family’s passion for football.
Viewers see Enrique arriving at PSG speaking only a few words of French. He nevertheless imposes his personality right away on the club.
Lucho, Enrique, is a nickname he goes by, and he travels with a Spanish-speaking coaching staff to speak to the players in his native tongue with the help of a French translator.
As relations with his biggest star – Mbappe – appear to worsen, viewers are treated to Enrique giving the star player what former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson used to call the “hairdryer treatment”, or a huge telling off.
Enrique calls it “C’est Catastrophique (It’s catastrophic)” on a large presentation screen for the striker because this is France. After PSG lost to Barcelona in the Champions League quarterfinal with a score of 2-3 in April of last year, the Spaniard is referring to Mbappe’s apparent refusal to defend at all.
Despite the manager-star player bust-up, PSG would move on to the semifinals, where they were ultimately beaten by Borussia Dortmund. Enrique’s post-match comments may prove prophetic after a year:
“Sport can sometimes be that way, but it’s a sad moment right now.” We have to try to create something special next year and win it”.
Behind the scenes with Lucho
Curiously for a football manager, he spends much of his day studying his team on a series of computer screens. This is broken down with workouts. He advises that you move every half-hour.  , In the documentary, Enrique is seen, in his plush Parisian house, regularly doing various strenuous exercises or cycling.
He mixes team discussions with plunges into his ice pool during the PSG training camp. As long as the manager is healthy, it pays off. But when he walks around the pitch, it is always barefoot as he believes in “grounding” or getting back in touch with nature.
The documentary combines both the good and bad parts of Enrique’s illustrious career and those from Barca and Real Madrid. Unsurprisingly, the lowest point occurs when Morocco dethrones Spain and knocks the bookmaker’s favorite out of the World Cup.
Away from football, we also see a tender side to Lucho when the documentary touches on his close relationship with his youngest daughter, Xana, who died at the age of nine from osteosarcoma, a bone tumour, in 2019.
Enrique and his wife Elena Cullell founded a foundation in her name to assist other families who are dealing with the same fate.
Graham Hunter, a producer on the documentary and a football journalist who is friends with Enrique, described his personality as “demanding and inspirational”.
He excelled as a football player. a Roy Keane from Spain. His ability to play everywhere on the pitch slightly cut how good he was because managers used him all over the pitch. He claims that he had many awards at Barca and Madrid.
“He initially did not want to be a coach.” ]He] Accepted an invitation from Pep]Guardiola] I think to coach Barca B. Although he had a few moments of physical conflict with Messi and Luis Suarez, the 2015 Champions League victory was incredible. The treble was won by them.
Hunter believes Enrique changed the playing style of the Spain team during his managerial tenure, introducing young talent like Pedri.
He claimed that he credited him with creating what has grown into a successful franchise and that he was very proud of it.
Hunter claims Enrique didn’t just leave PSG to win the Champions League.
“He went to PSG to imprint his brand of football and to convince the players, the fans that it was a brilliant, modern way to play football and to do that, you have to win the Champions League. He is interested in how people view his football as inspiring and attacking, just like they do winning medals.
Source: Aljazeera
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