In December 2021, ex-Bayern boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge chose his personal manager of the year on “Reif ist live” on BILD on TV: Luis Campos. As sporting director, the Portuguese made a big contribution to the OSC Lille championship that year. In 2017 he had already helped AS Monaco to the title with his squad composition.
Luis Campos was PSG’s trouble personified, so to speak.
This summer, the 58-year-old switched sides. He’s now officially the Paris club’s strategic advisor, in fact he’s the club’s key man when it comes to transfers.
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In an interview with “RMC Sport”, Campos has now spoken about his start at PSG, about the transfers, the rumors about the superstars Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi. And he has rejected Chelsea FC’s courtship: “I have a three-year contract here at PSG, just like I wanted, and I came here because I’m convinced that we can achieve something extraordinary.”
It doesn’t sound like Campos could succumb to Chelsea wooing – the Premier League club is said to be offering €8m a year salary, with Campos wanting to be sporting director. But the Portuguese raves about PSG: “I have to thank (club boss Nasser) al-Khelaifi for giving me this opportunity. When Nasser offered me this job, the first thing I did was call coach (Christophe) Galtier to talk about our project. I called him before my family did!”
In his first transfer window for the French champions, Campos has signed players worth €147.5m, including Vitinha (Porto/€41.5m), Fabian Ruiz (Naples/€23m), Carlos Soler (Valencia/18 million), Renato Sanches (Lille/15 million) and Nordi Mukiele (Leipzig/12 million).
Nevertheless, Campos is “not 100 percent satisfied with our summer transfers. And it’s not just about Milan Skriniar. We also negotiated for other defenders, but we couldn’t sign them.” PSG had tried for weeks for Inter defender Skriniar – in the end in vain.
The Portuguese also has concerns about the departures: “We haven’t sold that many players. Many have only left PSG on loan meaning they will be back in June. That’s not positive.”
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Sales candidate Julian Draxler (Benfica) is only on loan, as is Mauro Icardi (Galatasaray), Georginio Wijnaldum (AS Roma), Leandro Paredes (Juventus Turin), Ander Herrera (Bilbao) and Layvin Kurzawa (Fulham).
Luis Campos also spoke about the club’s top attacking stars: There had been rumors of a move around Neymar (30), Kylian Mbappé (23) is said to have advocated the Brazilian’s departure, and the future of Lionel Messi (35) is about this season beyond uncertain.
The Strategic Adviser said of Neymar and Mbappé: “Neymar was never close to leaving PSG. All the rumors surrounding Neymar this summer have been completely false. Also that Mbappé allegedly wanted Ney to be sold – another big fake news. Neymar is 100 percent part of our project.”
Speaking of Messi, Campos said: “I asked him if he wanted to stay and I told him that I hope he would stay here throughout my tenure. I’m very happy with Leo.” The Argentinian’s contract expires at the end of the season. It is said that the seven-time world footballer does not want to make his decision on how to proceed after the current season before the World Cup in Qatar.
The contract of defensive veteran Sergio Ramos (36) also expires at the end of the season. The Spaniard had a difficult first year but has been in top form lately. Campos says of a possible contract extension: “I’m happy with Sergio Ramos, so if he continues to perform like this – why not? He’s having a very good season, the same goes for Leo Messi – it would be good to extend both contracts.”
