On day one the Paris Saint-Germain players were left in no doubt about Luis Enrique.
Every one of them – including Neymar and Kylian Mbappé – was told he would have to sign a sheet of paper to say he was attending training. There were no excuses, no exceptions. Even those players who were injured were expected to be there. And if you were fit and did not personally sign the sheet then you did not play.
That was in July 2023. Neymar would leave by the end of the summer transfer window. Mbappé would finally depart on a free transfer, having run down his contract, a year later.
Before Enrique’s arrival as head coach, it had already been announced that Lionel Messi was leaving, and Sergio Ramos and Marco Verratti followed.
Messi, the world’s best player, the ultimate professional, had been dropped and fined in May for going to Saudi Arabia with his wife for an unauthorised trip that meant he missed training. The Argentina captain later apologised but it summed up PSG’s malaise.
But things were changing and PSG’s president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, identified Enrique as the coach to oversee that change.
Why? Not just because of the 54-year-old Spaniard’s achievements – including winning the treble with Barcelona in 2014-15 when he managed Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez – but because of his style of football, his commitment to youth. And, crucially, his discipline.
That discipline applies to Enrique himself. He is obsessive about nutrition and his fitness – he has completed Iron Man challenges and ran the 155-mile Marathon de Sables across the Sahara Desert. He has been known to stop meetings with his technical staff at PSG so he can do press-ups and squat thrusts after being alerted by his watch that he had not carried out any movement for 30 minutes.
Like Erling Haaland, Enrique is a devotee of ‘earthing’ and will walk barefoot on the PSG training pitches believing it helps him connect with nature and avoid allergies. Like Al-Khelaifi, he is a huge fan of padel.
When he first arrived, Enrique did not speak French but was so particular about getting his messages across that, rather than just use a translator, he recorded himself speaking to each of his players during training sessions and ensured each instruction was accurately translated afterwards. The audio was then returned to the player. It also meant they listened to what they were being told.
One-on-one coaching and hours of video analysis were also key as he personally worked with Vitinha, Willian Pacho, Joao Neves, Bradley Barcola, Désiré Doué and Ousmane Dembélé.
Getting players to sign in for training is not unusual. What was unusual is that Enrique not only made sure they physically signed a piece of paper themselves – rather than tap on to an iPad on arrival – but followed through with the threat that they would not play if they were late. No matter who they were.
Take Dembélé. As PSG face Aston Villa in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday, with a 3-1 advantage from the game in Paris last Wednesday, and with the 27-year-old striker leading their devastating attack, it is easy to forget that it was only last September that he was dropped by Enrique for what was then the biggest game of the season so far.
Why? Enrique had criticised Dembélé’s lack of work rate in a 3-1 win over Rennes and the France international bit back. Even though PSG were facing Arsenal in the Champions League, and subsequently lost 2-0, Enrique was determined that his way and the team came first.
We also saw that last season when he clashed with Mbappé and dropped him on occasions, even though PSG were trying to persuade the forward to sign a new contract. There is footage of Enrique castigating Mbappé after a game, saying there is no point having the best player in the world if he is not doing it for the team. Mbappé, who became known as “King Kylian”, in what was not really a compliment, had scored a hat-trick.
After being moved to centre-forward in December, Dembélé is now not only a contender to win the Ballon D’Or but sets the press – working incredibly hard to close down opposition defenders – which is so important to Enrique’s demanding style of play.
Enrique was Al-Khelaifi’s choice. There had been an expectation, after Christophe Galtier became the latest coach to fail to deal with the pressure amid his tumultuous time in charge, that PSG would pull out all the stops to get Julian Nagelsmann.
If not the German then Jose Mourinho, or even former PSG captain Thiago Motta who was impressing at Bologna. Instead, Al-Khelaifi remained focused on Enrique who had guided Spain to the semi-finals of the 2020 European Championship and was sacked after they failed to get beyond the last-16 of the last World Cup in 2022.
Enrique had been out of football since then.
His appointment was negatively received in France. But Al-Khelaifi believed Enrique was the perfect coach for the no more “flashy bling-bling” culture – to use the Qatari’s own phrase – at PSG which had seen them fall short, time and again, in the Champions League.
The post-Mbappé strategy has been clear. PSG have invested even more on young players with 19-year-old Doué scoring that sensational equalising goal last week against Villa, in what was Enrique’s 100th match, and 70th win, in charge.
PSG level the game up!
That finish from Désiré Doué is out of this world 💫
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUKpic.twitter.com/NtPzW2cYgL
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 9, 2025
Remarkably, this is the first time in the era since Qatar Sports Investments bought PSG in 2011 that a coach and a sporting director, Enrique and fellow Spaniard Luís Campos, have worked together for a second season.
Enrique has embraced PSG. He attends staff events, not just concentrating on the first team, and welcomed the club introducing a collective bonus for success that did not just apply to players.
PSG have already retained the French league title, a 13th, without losing a game, with even their opponents paying tribute. Liverpool’s Arne Slot said PSG were the best team in Europe, after the first leg of their last-16 tie.
That seemed remarkable given the heavy weather PSG made of reaching the knock-out stages. Nobody really appeared to believe Slot then. Now everyone is talking about it.
Enrique, a former Barcelona team-mate of Pep Guardiola, has moulded a team in his image: one that works incredibly hard, with discipline, but also allows talent to flourish. Just look at his wingers, Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, still just 24, who both scored brilliantly against Villa. The galácticos have gone. The star, as Enrique says, is the team. And that makes PSG all the more dangerous.
On day one the Paris Saint-Germain players were left in no doubt about Luis Enrique.
Every one of them – including Neymar and Kylian Mbappé – was told he would have to sign a sheet of paper to say he was attending training. There were no excuses, no exceptions. Even those players who were injured were expected to be there. And if you were fit and did not personally sign the sheet then you did not play.
That was in July 2023. Neymar would leave by the end of the summer transfer window. Mbappé would finally depart on a free transfer, having run down his contract, a year later.
Before Enrique’s arrival as head coach, it had already been announced that Lionel Messi was leaving, and Sergio Ramos and Marco Verratti followed.
Messi, the world’s best player, the ultimate professional, had been dropped and fined in May for going to Saudi Arabia with his wife for an unauthorised trip that meant he missed training. The Argentina captain later apologised but it summed up PSG’s malaise.
But things were changing and PSG’s president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, identified Enrique as the coach to oversee that change.
Why? Not just because of the 54-year-old Spaniard’s achievements – including winning the treble with Barcelona in 2014-15 when he managed Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez – but because of his style of football, his commitment to youth. And, crucially, his discipline.
That discipline applies to Enrique himself. He is obsessive about nutrition and his fitness – he has completed Iron Man challenges and ran the 155-mile Marathon de Sables across the Sahara Desert. He has been known to stop meetings with his technical staff at PSG so he can do press-ups and squat thrusts after being alerted by his watch that he had not carried out any movement for 30 minutes.
Like Erling Haaland, Enrique is a devotee of ‘earthing’ and will walk barefoot on the PSG training pitches believing it helps him connect with nature and avoid allergies. Like Al-Khelaifi, he is a huge fan of padel.
When he first arrived, Enrique did not speak French but was so particular about getting his messages across that, rather than just use a translator, he recorded himself speaking to each of his players during training sessions and ensured each instruction was accurately translated afterwards. The audio was then returned to the player. It also meant they listened to what they were being told.
One-on-one coaching and hours of video analysis were also key as he personally worked with Vitinha, Willian Pacho, Joao Neves, Bradley Barcola, Désiré Doué and Ousmane Dembélé.
Getting players to sign in for training is not unusual. What was unusual is that Enrique not only made sure they physically signed a piece of paper themselves – rather than tap on to an iPad on arrival – but followed through with the threat that they would not play if they were late. No matter who they were.
Take Dembélé. As PSG face Aston Villa in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday, with a 3-1 advantage from the game in Paris last Wednesday, and with the 27-year-old striker leading their devastating attack, it is easy to forget that it was only last September that he was dropped by Enrique for what was then the biggest game of the season so far.
Why? Enrique had criticised Dembélé’s lack of work rate in a 3-1 win over Rennes and the France international bit back. Even though PSG were facing Arsenal in the Champions League, and subsequently lost 2-0, Enrique was determined that his way and the team came first.
We also saw that last season when he clashed with Mbappé and dropped him on occasions, even though PSG were trying to persuade the forward to sign a new contract. There is footage of Enrique castigating Mbappé after a game, saying there is no point having the best player in the world if he is not doing it for the team. Mbappé, who became known as “King Kylian”, in what was not really a compliment, had scored a hat-trick.
After being moved to centre-forward in December, Dembélé is now not only a contender to win the Ballon D’Or but sets the press – working incredibly hard to close down opposition defenders – which is so important to Enrique’s demanding style of play.
Enrique was Al-Khelaifi’s choice. There had been an expectation, after Christophe Galtier became the latest coach to fail to deal with the pressure amid his tumultuous time in charge, that PSG would pull out all the stops to get Julian Nagelsmann.
If not the German then Jose Mourinho, or even former PSG captain Thiago Motta who was impressing at Bologna. Instead, Al-Khelaifi remained focused on Enrique who had guided Spain to the semi-finals of the 2020 European Championship and was sacked after they failed to get beyond the last-16 of the last World Cup in 2022.
Enrique had been out of football since then.
His appointment was negatively received in France. But Al-Khelaifi believed Enrique was the perfect coach for the no more “flashy bling-bling” culture – to use the Qatari’s own phrase – at PSG which had seen them fall short, time and again, in the Champions League.
The post-Mbappé strategy has been clear. PSG have invested even more on young players with 19-year-old Doué scoring that sensational equalising goal last week against Villa, in what was Enrique’s 100th match, and 70th win, in charge.
PSG level the game up!
That finish from Désiré Doué is out of this world 💫
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUKpic.twitter.com/NtPzW2cYgL
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 9, 2025
Remarkably, this is the first time in the era since Qatar Sports Investments bought PSG in 2011 that a coach and a sporting director, Enrique and fellow Spaniard Luís Campos, have worked together for a second season.
Enrique has embraced PSG. He attends staff events, not just concentrating on the first team, and welcomed the club introducing a collective bonus for success that did not just apply to players.
PSG have already retained the French league title, a 13th, without losing a game, with even their opponents paying tribute. Liverpool’s Arne Slot said PSG were the best team in Europe, after the first leg of their last-16 tie.
That seemed remarkable given the heavy weather PSG made of reaching the knock-out stages. Nobody really appeared to believe Slot then. Now everyone is talking about it.
Enrique, a former Barcelona team-mate of Pep Guardiola, has moulded a team in his image: one that works incredibly hard, with discipline, but also allows talent to flourish. Just look at his wingers, Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, still just 24, who both scored brilliantly against Villa. The galácticos have gone. The star, as Enrique says, is the team. And that makes PSG all the more dangerous.
