Former Spain and Barcelona manager Luis Enrique has been appointed as the new coach of Paris Saint-Germain on a two-year deal.
Christophe Galtier’s departure was confirmed earlier in the day, so he was replaced by the 53-year-old former coach of Barcelona. He had been a free agent since Spain fired him in December, but now he has a job.
Luis Enrique was introduced to the public at a press conference with the Qatar-backed club’s president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi. The event took place at the club’s new training facility in Poissy, which is north-west of Paris.
“I’m delighted to be joining Paris in order to enjoy a new experience,” Luis Enrique said in a club statement.
“It’s so exciting to meet new people, to live in this city, to learn a new language and, above all, to manage PSG.”
But when he was asked if he had any guarantees that the star forward Mbappe would stay at the club for the next season, he dodged the question.
Later, the Spaniard said that he “counts on all the players who are under contract.”
But Khelaifi said that Mbappe, who is 24 years old, “must sign a new contract” if he wants to stay at PSG next year.
“The position is very clear. If Kylian wants to stay, he must sign a new contract. We can’t let the best player in the world today leave for free. It’s impossible,” Khelaifi said.
“He said he would not leave for free. If somebody has changed his mind, that is not my fault.”
Last month, Mbappe said that he would not renew his contract, which ends next year.
So, the club needs to sell the player during the current transfer window. If they don’t, they might lose him for free when his contract is up.
A year ago, Real Madrid wanted to sign Mbappe before he signed a new deal with Paris. If the striker does decide to switch teams, the Spanish powerhouses are the most likely to sign him.
The new coach will be the eighth person to lead the club since the Qataris took over in 2011. Like the others, he will be expected to help the team win the Champions League, which hasn’t happened yet.
PSG has never won Europe’s most prestigious club competition. The closest they’ve come was when they lost to Bayern Munich in the final of the 2020 competition.
In five of the last seven seasons, they lost in the 16th round. In the most recent season, they lost to Bayern at that stage. Galtier paid a high price for that loss.
Luis Enrique is no stranger to the Champions League. As coach of Barcelona, he won it in 2015 with a great team led by Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suarez in attack.
He is now joining a club that is starting to rebuild again after Messi left after two years.
Neymar has been talked about leaving the Parc des Princes, so finding out who the new coach is could be good news for him.
The Brazilian had three great years at the Camp Nou under Luis Enrique. During that time, Barcelona won the Champions League, La Liga twice, the Copa del Rey three times, a UEFA Super Cup, and a Club World Cup.
As PSG gets ready to start preseason training, they are likely to confirm a number of high-profile new signings. Later this month, they will go on a tour of Japan.
Paris will start their defence of the Ligue 1 title on August 12 and 13 against Lorient.
In 2017, Luis Enrique left Barcelona and in 2018, he became the coach of Spain. But he quit in June 2019 and told everyone two months later that his nine-year-old daughter had died from bone cancer.
He went back to Spain’s job in November of that year and led them to the semi-finals of Euro 2020 and the final of the UEFA Nations League in 2021. However, he was fired after Spain lost to Morocco in a penalty shootout in the last 16 of the World Cup last year.
Galtier had only been in charge for one season, and his contract still had a year to go, but everyone knew he would leave.
He led PSG to win the league, but their loss in the Champions League overshadowed that.
During Galtier’s last few weeks in power, he was also accused of making racist comments about players when he worked at Nice before.
He has strongly denied the charges, but the case will go to court in December.
