“Who best represents Barça’s DNA? Without a doubt me. This is not an opinion. Look at the data, the ball possession, the scoring chances, the high pressing, look at the trophies, the titles, without a doubt me. You may have another opinion, but definitely me.”
The look is hard. The dry tone. With his slamming words spoken without any irony, but with strength and determination. So goes Luis Enrique, who transformed a mundane pre-match press conference a week ago into a platform commemorating the unwavering bond he has with his quarter-final opponent.
Paris SG – FC Barcelona: when Xavi traps Luis Enrique in a real coaching match
How can we understand this attachment to a club that is almost 900 kilometers away from his native Asturias and which nevertheless failed him when it came time to sign pro because he had done too little during a trial at 18, which seems difficult to conceive today given the character’s taste for work? The answer is both simple and complex. Like the trajectory of this son of a truck driver and a seamstress who grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Gijon. In 1991, when Johan Cruyff fell under his spell, he did not join Barça, with whom its president had nevertheless reached an oral agreement, but Madrid and his Real who then lifted the release clause of the fifth top scorer of the championship. By multiplying his salary by ten. Justification from the person concerned: “Signing for Real is a dream. I studied all the offers. The one that interested me the most was that of Real. From the start, it was pretty clear that I could play here.”
Five seasons and 150 games later, the dream ended after a nightmarish season for him and Real when he signed for Barcelona. With a bang naturally. That of the Marca reporter’s camera, which finds itself thrown to the ground by the player, who has barely appreciated the journalist’s presence at the clinic where he is having his medical examination, in what marks the starting point of his turbulent relationship with the media. All this while the championship was not over. And he assures him: “I deny having signed up with Barça and that my medical examinations were for this club. I came to the hospital because I took out life insurance that my agent asked me to do. I am a Real player and I want to continue to be.” He will no longer be and will admit it later, in 2014: “I have always been Barça. First from Sporting, then from Barça. After leaving Madrid, I called my brother, a die-hard Barça fan since childhood, and I told him now, we are going to enjoy.”
From 1996 to 2004, Luis Enrique played 300 matches for FC Barcelona, winning 7 trophies. ©BelgaWhy the relationship between Kylian Mbappé and Luis Enrique is complicated
He who won the Olympics in 1992 in the Catalan capital quickly became the darling of the Camp Nou with his flawless investment and his versatility. Close to Figo, Nadal and especially Abelardo whom he knows from Gijon, he ultimately spent the last eight years of his playing life in a city where he met his wife, Elena. And in 2008, four years after his retirement, he logically began his coaching career in the reserves after graduating with Pep Guardiola.
Luis Enrique and Josep Guardiola. Photo: Gregorio / Alfaqui / Icon Sport ©Alfaqui / Icon Sport
His assessment? A rise to D2 and a third place before leaving for Roma in 2011. To come back better. Not in the summer of 2013, despite a first approach, but at the insistence of Lionel Messi, Gerardo Martino was preferred. He returned a year later after a spell at Celta Vigo. Once again with a bang. Also with this quarrel with Pulga. In January 2015, the argument burned between the Argentinian, tired of not being able to call Enrique fouls on him in training, and the demanding technician. Until seeing the striker on the bench during a trip to Anoeta. In the end, captain at dusk, Xavi, whom Enrique had managed to convince not to hang up, ended up playing intermediary, dragging the entire locker room in his wake on the path to a second hat-trick. A fine player, Messi admitted: “Without Enrique, we would never have gotten there.”
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If they eliminate me, I will have been eliminated by my team.
Architect of the MSN when the Argentinian would have preferred that Agüero did not come in place of Suarez, Enrique, with his much more vertical game, also remained as the man of the comeback during his third and last season in Catalonia. One of the last great thrills in Barça’s history in the Champions League. From his Barça. Because he didn’t hide it during his last Twitch session: “The good thing about facing Barça in the quarterfinals is that if they eliminate me, I will have been eliminated by my team.”
2024-04-16 08:39:00
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