Luis Enrique, the loopy magician who turned PSG into one other dimension | EUROtoday

On May 31, 2025

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HUITIEUM OF THE FULL FULL OF THE 2024 Champions League. The PSG faces Real SOCIEDAD on the Parc des Princes. After a laborious first half this February 14, the 2 groups come again to the locker room on the rating from 0 to 0. The Parisians struggled to impose their recreation towards the Basques. The coach, the Spaniard Luis Enrique, is conscious of it; His staff wants an electrical shock. Suddenly, the Asturian explodes: the bottles of water fly and he violently strikes a tactical portray. Mbappé, Barcola, Dembélé and the remainder of the staff are surprised. “If Real Sociedad wins, it doesn’t matter!” At least, I’m making an attempt to play! The coach flourished, revolving across the central desk like a bull in an enviornment. This muscular rant that may be seen within the documentary in three episodes entitled You can not perceive reminds us of a legendary scene performed by Al Pacino in Sunday hell. He will bear fruit.

Ragaillardi, the Parisian collective will return to the garden, carried by a brand new wind. That night, PSG will lastly win 2-0, completely illustrating how Luis Enrique, by its authority and its rigor, was in a position to rework its group of particular person stars into an actual collective. In brief, by bringing in Paris Saint-Germain into one other dimension. A 12 months later, this transformation has simply reached its peak. After eliminating Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal, PSG will face, on May 31, 2025 in Munich, the Inter of Milan within the closing of the Queen of European competitions, the Champions League. An unimaginable alternative for the membership and its Qataris shareholders to write down probably the most lovely pages in its historical past.

PSG, a membership with the ambition displayed and disproportionate since its acquisition by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) in 2011, has lengthy sought to beat Europe by specializing in stars recruits. But spending as much as 2 billion euros to deliver Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar Jr., Lionel Messi or Kylian Mbappé was not sufficient. If this technique allowed them to dominate Ligue 1 outrageously, it was not efficient in climbing to the highest of the continental Olympus. For PSG, the Champions League remained a chimera enamelled with disillusions, because the now well-known “raised” of 2017.

Read too March 8, 2017: The day when PSG undergoes probably the most unimaginable “raised” in historical pastIt was on this context that Luis Enrique landed in Paris in the summertime of 2023. The membership had simply seen, a blow, Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. Kylian Mbappé, the kid of Bondy, additionally threatened to fold up – he’ll lastly go away the next summer time. The air was to pessimism: how might a PSG strip on this means nonetheless hope to take care of its rank and apply for the best European steps?

The collective, the one star within the thoughts of Luis Enrique

However, underneath the management of the Spanish coach, PSG has not sunk; He operated an actual metamorphosis. Rather than going searching for new stars, he made the wager of the collective, the one actual star of this new PSG in Enrique sauce. Players like Vitinha, Warren Zaïre-Emery, Joao Neves or Désiré Doué noticed their affect rising underneath his route, changing into pillars of a collective the place every participant has a exact and non-negligible function.

The administration of the case of Kylian Mbappé is, on this regard, emblematic of the power of character of the previous participant of Real Madrid (213 video games from 1991 to 1996), then of FC Barcelona (300 video games from 1996 to 2004). While uncertainty hovered over the way forward for the star of the French staff, Luis Enrique was in a position to make sturdy selections: to deliver it out, put it on the bench, or make it play in several positions. Always with a single clear message: nobody is above the establishment and the sport mission.

Match after match, Luis Enrique breathed an actual spirit of the sport primarily based on depth, the entrance -oriented possession and a robust collective cohesion. Far from people typically put ahead up to now, the Spanish technician has centered on the collective, demanding fixed urgent, excessive restoration and speedy circulation of the ball. The gamers are inspired to take initiatives and to be cellular, thus making a extra dynamic and unpredictable soccer, the place everybody actively participates within the offensive and defensive phases. This mind-set leads to a extra tactically disciplined staff and a extra united group, displaying a palpable dedication on the bottom.

Read too Can Paris Saint-Germain succeed within the Champions League with out a star? However, the trail of success was not linear for the Spaniard who has simply celebrated his fifty fifth birthday on May 8. Her PSG, feverish through the first conferences, was in a position to cross the storm and present psychological resilience, a capability to beat sophisticated moments, particularly within the Champions League, the place she knew the way to attain the ultimate after phases of teams the place she didn’t go away from the outing. His picture of an boastful, typically contemptuous coach, to the media additionally didn’t assist him. Evidenced by his dry response to a Canal+ journalist after a defeat towards Arsenal in October: “I have no intention of explaining my tactic to you because you would not understand it”.

However, for the reason that starting of 2025, a notable evolution has been noticed in its media habits. A change that has helped to appease tensions and set up a local weather of mutual respect between the coach and the journalists. A change that additionally explains, why even illustrious Marseillais like Basile Boli or Zinédine Zidane overtly expressed their help for PSG, a number of days earlier than the Munich closing.

The tragedy of her daughter, Xana

This inside drive, we uncover it within the documentary You can not perceivethe place we be taught that, each thirty minutes – if we imagine his statements -, the Spanish coach performs a sequence of workouts: pumps, squats, slots. No matter the context. This iron self-discipline, this philosophy of resilience partially plunges their roots into a private tragedy.

In 2019, when he was a coach of Spain, Luis Enrique needed to go away his duties to accompany his 9 -year -old daughter, Xana, affected by bone most cancers. She will succumb to the illness a number of months later. This drama, of immeasurable ache, has turned his life the wrong way up. He drew a brand new drive, an ethical endurance and a unique perspective from the assessments of sport and existence. His return to the best stage, his unfailing dedication and his potential to handle the strain has since been perceived because the reflections of an intimate reconstruction. The hardness he typically shows in public additionally masks an emotional depth and a want to dwell each second absolutely – together with in work.

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Under its route, PSG has discovered a soul, a transparent id of play and a warrior mentality. In France, he received all the things: Championship, French Cup and Champions Trophy. The membership now not is dependent upon remoted genius strokes, however on a stable construction, an oiled collective and a flawless dedication. Under his orders, the younger Désiré Doué at this time embodies the way forward for PSG and doubtless of the French staff.

If the conquest of the Champions League stays a colossal problem, the person who calls himself misunderstood has already completed the important: giving Paris Saint-Germain a reworked face. That of a staff that performs with rules, which depends on a collective, and which, lastly, appears able to compete with the best – not by a stack of stars, however by the power of an actual recreation mission. PSG by no means appeared so sturdy, as a result of it present in Luis Enrique not a easy coach, however an actual architect of his Renaissance.

https://www.lepoint.fr/sport/luis-enrique-le-magicien-fou-qui-a-fait-basculer-le-psg-dans-une-autre-dimension-30-05-2025-2590873_26.php