Paris Saint-Germain is not a resentful club. Wednesday July 5, Luis Enrique, coach in post in Barcelona during the reassembled (PSG 6-1 defeat at Camp Nou, March 8, 2017), was appointed until 2025 at the head of the Parisian team. He succeeds Christophe Galtier, whose initial two-year contract was terminated after the club’s lackluster 2022-2023 season, despite everything being champion of France for the eleventh time.
Considered “plan B” at the time of the discussions – which failed – with the former German coach of Bayern Munich, Julian Nagelsmann, the Spaniard becomes the eighth coach of the Qatari era at PSG. He will try to be the first to lead the Parisians to victory in the Champions League, a title to which he led FC Barcelona in 2015.
While Kylian Mbappé and his teammates will return to training on Monday July 10 at the new training center in Poissy (Yvelines), this appointment, announced with great fanfare on Wednesday July 5 in this new “PSG Campus”, appears somewhat bit late. The club first had to find common ground with Christophe Galtier on the amount of his severance pay before announcing the name of his successor. Thing done since the PSG formalized, Wednesday, the departure of the French coach – the latter will be tried in December for supposed discriminatory remarks made when he was coaching Nice.
The arrival of the 53-year-old technician should have a real impact on the contours of the Parisian workforce next season. Character trainer, Luis Enrique indeed wishes to have his say on a recruitment which started without him.
The presence of the Spaniard could change the future of certain executives, such as Neymar or Marco Verratti, who were given starters but who could ultimately stay at PSG, delighted with his arrival. Under the orders of Luis Enrique, the Brazilian won the Champions League in 2015, as for the Italian “Little Owl”, the former coach assured that“He always had the profile to play in my team”the same year.
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The story between Luis Enrique and Paris did not start on July 5. His first meeting with Paris dates back to 1993, when the Asturian wore the Real Madrid shirt. Holder for two UEFA Cup qualifying matches (since renamed Europa League), he had been eliminated by David Ginola’s PSG. Four years later, Luis Enrique took revenge, this time with Barcelona, by winning the Coupe des Coupes final against PSG.
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