'A footballing architect' - how Enrique led PSG to brink of glory

BBC News

a day ago

Paris St-Germain's journey to the brink of glory in the Champions League final started when the final giant symbol of the club's so-called "bling bling" era was swept away.Kylian Mbappe's decision to join Real Madrid last summer saw the only remaining member of the superstar attacking trio, which included Neymar and Lionel Messi, leave Paris, clearing the way for PSG's switch of strategy under coach Luis Enrique.Enrique, described by those within PSG as "a footballing architect", seized his chance, convincing club president Nasser al-Khelaifi and football advisor Luis Campos that he could build a younger, better, more cohesive side in the post-Mbappe age.And so it has proved, as now only a formidable Inter Milan team stand between this thrilling young PSG side and the crown they crave most, the Champions League.PSG, fuelled by brilliant young talents such as 19-year-old Desire Doue and Georgian genius Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and inspired by Enrique, who has known such tragedy and triumph in his life, have become a genuine Champions League feel-good story on the pitch.Can they now provide a happy ending?
Enrique inspires new PSG era
Luis Enrique walks barefoot on the grass of Campus PSG, the club's training ground 25 minutes away from their Parc des Princes home, every morning as part of his devotion to "earthing", believing it brings him closer to nature and helps fight off allergies.If the 55-year-old Asturian can bring the Champions League to Paris for the first time, PSG's fanatical ultras will be believe he can also walk on water.Enrique's appointment in July 2023 was a clear signal that PSG were moving away from the superstar culture, a dramatic change of direction which appealed to a coach bolted on to the team ethic.French football expert Julien Laurens told BBC Sport: "They wanted someone to build something for the future, with patience. He was the best candidate."The considered people of the calibre of Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho. These guys are winners but they win now. They don't really build anything. Luis Enrique fitted what PSG wanted."Former Brazil midfielder Rai, who was a member of the only PSG team to win a European trophy in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1996, is also an Enrique admirer.He told BBC Sport: "Nowadays, for a team to be considered complete and with a good chance of winning major titles, they need not only talent, but 100% commitment from all players, at all times of the game, whether defending or attacking, with or without the ball."What is most impressive about Luis Enrique's management is the fact that he achieved this in such a short time, and especially with such young players. This shows that his tactical scheme was well understood, that the players believe in him, and that his system is very effective."Away from the pitch, the coach also demanded a level of control that had escaped predecessors such as Unai Emery, Thomas Tuchel, Mauricio Pochettino and Christophe Galtier."Luis Enrique is the leader of the club," said Laurens. "For a long time it was run by the superstars. If they didn't want to do something they wouldn't do it. They would go straight to the president. It undermined the coach - not any more."
Enrique's authority is absolute when it comes to playing matters at PSG.Pierre-Etienne Minonzio, based in Paris with influential sports paper L'Equipe, told BBC Sport: "People at PSG understood there had been a problem of authority in the last few years."Galtier was a French manager, and a good one, but lacked the experience to impose his views. He was a very good manager, but not strong enough to face Mbappe and say things to him."It was the same with Mauricio Pochettino. It was always said his obsession was to have peace in the dressing room. He never took any decisions that went against Messi and Mbappe,"Enrique was not having that. He told PSG clearly 'If I am the boss and I will be the boss'. He's now the guy who embodies the whole club, the whole team."Enrique is obsessive about PSG and his own self-discipline down to the finest details, with his watch even alerting him if he has not carried out any stretching or movement for 30 minutes.In 2007, he successfully took on the Frankfurt Ironman challenge - a 2.4-mile swim, a 118-mile cycle and a full marathon. In 2008, he ran the gruelling Marathon de Sables, a 155-mile race staged over six days in the Sahara desert.He is, however, someone with true perspective after losing his nine-year-old daughter Xana to a rare form of bone cancer in 2019.Enrique has said: "Her body is gone, but she hasn't died. She's still with us. "Physically, she may not be here, but spiritually she is. Because every day we talk about her, we laugh, and we remember because I think Xana still sees us."It enables him to reflect on the realities of football, once saying: "I'm not afraid of the worst in football If they sack me, no problem. The next day, I'll go for a cycling trip."Should Enrique win his second Champions League, following a triumph with Barcelona in 2015, it will be a moment of history and high emotion in Munich.
PSG young guns outshine 'Galacticos'
Mbappe's departure was PSG's clear the air moment. The French superstar may have added goals and a touch of genius, but the landscape shifted at Parc des Princes once he left.Enrique saw it as the opportunity to exert complete control on how PSG played, with brilliant, but ultimately individualistic, Mbappe gone.This control was over a new "team" - in the literal sense of the word - with Enrique focusing on young talent he could mould rather than established, often ego-driven, figures.Enrique believed it might take more than this season to challenge for the biggest prize, namely the Champions League, and a slow start to the campaign backed this view.He may regard reaching the Champions League final as being ahead of schedule.PSG's new era truly began when Premier League champions Manchester City were thrashed 4-2 on a rain-lashed night in Paris and the new brigade like Doue and Bradley Barcola came to prominence. Ousmane Dembele, restored from his Barcelona struggles, delivered a stunning cameo as substitute.And so it went on, as this trio helped PSG take a wrecking ball to the Premier League's elite, Liverpool, Aston Villa and then Arsenal beaten in the knockout stage to reach Munich. To add to their growing power, Kvaratskhelia arrived from Napoli in January for 70m euros (£59m) plus add-ons to complete the jigsaw.Former Scotland winger and BBC Sport pundit Pat Nevin is a long-time Kvaratskhelia fan saying: "He has got everything I want from a winger, but a bit more as well. "He always wants to take players on. He wants to attack players. He has lots of tricks and flicks. He does unusual things and he breaks lines. Never ever fearful, always positive and wants to entertain."You need two people to mark him. If he doesn't go by players, he draws players towards him, and then he slips others in because he has developed the space."
Doue had a slow start but, along with Barcola and Dembele, was the beneficiary of Enrique's one-on-one attention, the coach utterly invested in the young talent that would decorate his new team.Rai said: "What impresses me most about them [PSG's young forwards] is that they combine technical quality, tactical obedience and physical intensity with personality. All of them have an impressive ability to dribble and improvise."And there is no preferential treatment. All are equal in Enrique's eyes.Dembele was dropped before the Champions League game at Arsenal in October after Enrique expressed dissatisfaction with his work-rate in a Ligue 1 game against Rennes.Dembele returned transformed and freshly motivated, leading PSG's run to the Ligue 1 title, the Coupe de France - and now with the Champions League in their sights.Measured by average age, PSG are the youngest side to have progressed beyond the play-off round in the Champions League this season at 24 years 262 days.And their intense, high-pressing style is illustrated by the fact they rank first in the tournament this season for shot-ending high turnovers (37). They frequently turn high-presses into attacking opportunities.This will be a final of youth against experience, with the average age of Inter Milan's starting 11 in the Champions League this season 30 years and 19 days - the oldest among all 36 teams involved in the tournament.PSG will hope Enqrique's potent blend of youthful brilliance and more experienced figures such as captain Marquinhos and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who has had a superb Champions League campaign, will finally bring trophy back to Paris.
PSG's "Ultras" expectant in Munich
The famous Virage Auteuil, where PSG's ultras gather at one end of Parc des Princes, will be transported to Munich for one night only for this final.To watch PSG cut a swathe through the Premier League's best on the way to Munich was to witness the dial of expectation turned up with every game in a kaleidoscope of colour and a wall of sound.PSG's followers were denied the chance to attend the club's only previous Champions League final, when they lost 1-0 behind closed doors to Bayern Munich at Lisbon's Stadium Of Light during the Covid pandemic.So a special welcome will await PSG's players of the sort that has become familiar at Parc des Princes.
"Beaten By The Waves, Paris Never Sunk" read the tifo stretching along one end of Virage Auteuil before they beat Manchester City, while "55 years of memory behind you to write history" was the message before Arsenal were beaten in the semi-final second leg in Paris.There will, no doubt, be fresh motivational messages for PSG's players on Saturday night.In the previous 10 seasons, PSG have reached two semi-finals, two quarter-finals, the last 16 five times, and that one final under Tuchel.PSG's colourful fans have been flooding into Munich for the biggest night in their history, anticipation heavy in the air that Luis Enrique's emerging side can at last cross that elusive final frontier.