The Spaniard is on the verge of ending the club's agonising wait for European Cup glory thanks to some inspired decisions and vital support
The Paris Saint-Germain job has long been regarded as a poisoned chalice. Money is no object to the club's Qatari owners, which is obviously an ideal scenario for any coach, but limitless financial backing means that patience is always in short supply.
Carlo Ancelotti, Laurent Blanc, Unai Emery, Thomas Tuchel, Mauricio Pochettino and Christophe Galtier all won trophies during their respective spells at Parc des Princes, but not the one that PSG craved above all others – the Champions League.
On Saturday in Munich, though, Luis Enrique has a glorious chance to succeed where all of his high-profile predecessors have failed. So, how has the Spaniard done it? What has Luis Enrique done to put PSG in a better position than ever before to finally realise their European Cup dream? GOAL explains all below…
AFPUnwavering support
PSG wrapped up Ligue 1 with three rounds of the 2023-24 season to spare – but that was hardly a noteworthy achievement. Luis Enrique had been expected all along to lead PSG to their 10th title in 12 seasons. What had not been anticipated, though, was PSG getting knocked out of the Champions League semi-finals by Borussia Dortmund.
BVB were worthy opponents, having emerged from the competition's 'Group of Death' before reaching the last four with a stunning win over Atletico Madrid. However, PSG had been the heavy favourites to prevail against a team toiling in the Bundesliga – and particularly after an investment of more than €430 million (£360m/$480m) in the playing squad across the summer and winter transfer windows.
Consequently, the coach came under an awful lot of scrutiny after back-to-back 1-0 losses to Dortmund. Luckily for Luis Enrique, club chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi had his back: "I can't believe what is being written and I even find it ridiculous," the Qatari told . "But we won’t let it affect our football at all. We have a short-, medium- and long-term strategy and I have full confidence in the manager, in the players, and all of our team."
AdvertisementGetty Images SportOverdue exit
There's no disguising the fact that Kylian Mbappe's move to Real Madrid was a bitter blow for PSG, both as a team and a business. They lost their all-time leading goal-scorer, and most marketable player, for absolutely nothing. However, there was always the suspicion that it might end up being a blessing in disguise, simply because Mbappe had become too big for his boots – and arguably the club.
The constant flirting with Madrid had become a major source of distraction (and irritation for Luis Enrique, who hates dealing with the press at the best of times), while the forward's prima donna behaviour hardly helped build a sense of team spirit. The feeling was that Mbappe always had to be indulged, meaning he could do as he pleased, on and off the field.
The departure of the last remnant of the 'bling-bling' era, thus, allowed Luis Enrique to construct a far more united and hard-working team – with the help of PSG sporting director Luis Campos, who unquestionably benefited from the removal of Mbappe's gargantuan salary from the wage bill as it allowed him to invest more money a new project founded upon promising players rather than established stars.
AFPSummer of successful signings
PSG's recruitment during the summer of 2023 was far from flawless, and Bradley Barcola was arguably the only new signing to justify his fee during his first season at the club. Last summer, though, PSG made fewer moves but with far greater success.
While other members of Europe's elite mulled over whether Joao Neves was really worth €70m (£58m/$79m), PSG pulled the trigger and are now reaping the rewards, with the 20-year-old looking like a generational talent.
Former Eintracht Frankfurt centre-back Willian Pacho has also proven an absolute snip at €40m (£34m/$45m), the incredibly exciting Desire Doue has already justified his €50m (£42m/$57m) fee, while bringing in Khvicha Kvaratskhelia midway through the season has proven an absolute masterstroke, with the addition of yet another devastating dribbler making PSG even more of a nightmare to play against.
"Of course we would have liked to keep Kylian," Luis Enrique admitted, "because everyone liked Kyky. But the team is responding very positively, at a spectacular level. I was very brave last season when I told you that we would have a better team in attack and defence, but the numbers are there to support it. The players took it as a challenge."
And they've passed it with flying colours, with PSG playing not only with greater unity than ever before, but also greater potency (147 goals scored this season compared to 120 in the final year of Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar!).
AFPLaying down the law
It's worth remembering, though, that PSG didn't exactly look like the sum of their collective parts during the early stages of the season, at least not in Europe anyway. After scraping past Girona in their Champions League opener thanks to a last-minute own goal from goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga, PSG suffered a 2-0 loss at Arsenal on October 1.
The result itself wasn't particularly damaging – thanks to the farcical new format – but the nature of the performance was very disconcerting, and Luis Enrique made no attempt to hide his dissatisfaction with his players in his post-match press conference.
"We were far away from the standards you need in this kind of match," he fumed. "Arsenal were much better in terms of pressure and intensity. It's impossible to play for a positive result when you don't win any of your duels on the pitch. And we won none."
Luis Enrique had also shown his stern side before the match, though, by leaving Ousmane Dembele out of his match squad for failing to "comply or respect the expectations of the team". It was a very negative situation but sent a positive message to the rest of the squad that, under his leadership, no player, no matter how valuable, would receive preferential treatment within his egalitarian regime.
