In two years he has made the Paris SG, a nest of stars without a common link, a collective and coral idea. With Mbappé at the beginning he reached a semifinal of the Champions League, which lost with the Dortmund. Without Mbappé later, and guided by the hand of an incredible and surprisingly effective Dembélé, Munich appears this Saturday night to reach the top that threw with Barça in Berlin-2015.
A decade has passed and Luis Enrique has not changed anything. The leader who wanted to be, and could not of that team of Messi and his friends Luis Suárez and Neymar, is now the leader, spiritual, sports and even psychological of a PSG who is, again, at the door of history. If the Inter de Inzaghi step exceeds, the Asturian would place the Parisian club on another level.
But 'Lucho', a modern, vitalist technician, fan of an idea, capable of getting on a scaffold or crane to supervise a training, obsessive with work, which would love to dominate his players with a 'Joy Stick' has a mission that goes beyond the cataract money. Or of the expensive and incomplete work that is lived in a club for which Ibrahimovic, Mbappé, Messi or Neymar have paraded, among other great stars, always running with the hitherto impassable wall of Europe.
Luis Enrique, in a press conference. / Efe / Yoan Valat
It dominates in France dictatorially -won seven of the last eight leagues and now has four consecutively -but it has not been nobody in the Champions. Ancelotti, Blanc, Unai Emery, Tuchel -the one that was closest because he lost the final against the Bayern of Flick in pandemic times -Pochettino and Galtier configure the luxurious relationship of coaches who have gone empty -handed.
But Luis Enrique is not alone in that vital purpose that would related to what it is already. With the great technicians of the world who have kissed the orejona on a couple of occasions and with different clubs, type their guardiola (two with Barça and one with the City). There is something intimate and, at the same time public, because the Asturian shares at all times his pain and his memory towards Xana, the 9 -year -old daughter who died in August 2019 after suffering an osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer.
Luis Enrique celebrates with his daughter Xana the triumph of Barça in the Champions-2015 final in Berlin. / AFP / Up Andersen
“I have an incredible memory because my daughter really liked parties. And I'm sure where she is still making parties,” said Luis Enrique a few weeks ago. “I remember a photo that I have with her incredible in the Berlin final after winning the Champions League final nailing a flag of Barcelona in the countryside,” the former Barca former coach recalled excitedly.
“I have the desire to be able to do the same with the Paris Sg. My daughter will not be, but she will not be physically, but spiritually and that for me is very important,” added 'Lucho', who said that “I have the motivation to move forward with what life gives me and share it with my family. We all like beautiful and happy things, but that is part of life, overcome misfortunes and the things we don't like.”
“I remember a photo that I have with her incredible in the Berlin final after winning the Champions League final nailing a flag of Barcelona in the countryside. I have the desire to be able to do the same with the Paris Sg. My daughter will not be, but it will be”
And there is Luis Enrique, almost six years later. With a hidden flag anywhere in the Allianz Arena de Munich, waiting to be planted in the center of the pitch, after having raffled a endless route. Demonstious and complicated because it all started in an anguish way – Debut in the Park of the Princes and triumph over the Girona in the added time when the ball made fun of Gazzaniga – with a Paris sg full of doubts and problems. He doubted Dembélé, now he is the star of the team, and Donnarumma, the goalkeeper who has taken him with decisive stops against the Inter.
Luis Enrique, the PSG coach, on the bench of the Princes Park. / Efe / Yoan Valat
On the second day, the coach left the striker out of the call. Nor traveled to London, where the PSG lost against Arsenal (2-0). “The best thing I did was not put it to play in London when everyone criticized me. It was my best decision,” the Asturian recently acknowledged. Then, never seen with Ousmane, transformed into a 'false nine', to which the goals of the pockets fell.
Who had seen him at Barça for seven years? In 185 games he scored 40 goals. And with Xavi, for example, only 10 in two seasons. And who sees it now with the PSG? With Luis Enrique, El Salto is absolutely sidereal signing 33 goals in the 48 games he has played this season. With Mbappé by his side, he only achieved six; Without Kylyan, 33. A real madness! And only one encounter has been lost because I was sick.
Luis Enrique gives Dembélé instructions in a Barça-PSG. / Jordi Cotrina
Luis Enrique, who said without fear that the march of the French star to Madrid would do better team to the PSG, corresponds to the paternity of this work that has taken the Premier champion ahead (eliminated Liverpool in the round of 16), left in the gutter to Aston Villa in quarters and broke in semifinals the illusion of the arsenal, which had thrown into Madrid, the champion of Madrid.
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