Luis Enrique affirms that his goal is to win the Champions League with the French club.
PSG sign Luis Enrique and fire Christophe Galtier after a disappointing season.
The former Spain coach will be the new coach of Paris Saint-Germain for the next 2 years, with the mission of helping the French team finally win the Champions League title.
Club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi said his arrival will mark the start of a “new cycle, with a new style of play.” During the press conference, Luis Enrique has not given guarantees about the future of the star player, Kylian Mbappé, at the club.
In an earlier statement, PSG thanked Galtier, who had one year left on his contract, “for his professionalism and commitment.” Galtier’s assistants, Thierry Oleksiak and João Sacramento, were also fired.
In addition to the mediocre results of his all-star team, Galtier was accused of making racist and anti-Muslim comments while managing French club Nice. He was summoned to trial in December as part of the investigation.
Luis Enrique intends to win the Champions League
Since Qatari investors bought the club, PSG have become a dominant force in France. But neither the multi-million dollar investment nor the signing of stars like Lionel Messi have been enough to obtain the title of champions.
In their hitherto ill-fated quest for Champions League glory, PSG have just appointed their eighth manager in 12 years.
The only Champions League final PSG reached was in the 2020 pandemic-shortened format, when they lost to Bayern Munich.
Enrique has been without a contract since Spain’s elimination from the World Cup last year. He vowed to uphold the same attacking philosophy for which he is famous, adding that he “loves the pressure” that comes with the goal of winning the Champions League with PSG.
Enrique, 53, took charge of the national team in 2018 to start renewing the Spanish team after their elimination in the round of 16 of the World Cup in Russia. He left temporarily due to the illness and subsequent death of his young daughter, but returned in 2019.
He helped Spain reach the semifinals of the Nations League on two occasions, and also led them to the semifinals of the Eurocup. He had more success with Barcelona, winning the Champions League, La Liga and the Copa del Rey in his first season in charge of the team.
Mbappé’s future at PSG is still up in the air
“We can’t let the best player in the world go for free,” the president of Paris Saint-Germain, Nasser al Khelaifi, said this Wednesday emphatically and formally about Kylian Mbappé.
In his first public statement on the future of PSG’s French star, Al Khelaifi assured that the club’s position “is very clear.” “If Kylian wants to stay, we want him to continue, but sign a new contract,” he stressed.
Al Khelaifi added that he is “sure” that Mbappé himself has said in the past: “I will never leave for free.” And he added: “If someone wants to change his mind, it’s not my fault.”
“But we cannot let the best player in the world go for free,” stressed the PSG president at the end of the press conference to present Luis Enrique Martínez as the club’s new coach.
This statement by Al Khelaifi is the first in public after several weeks of leaks about PSG considering transferring their star this summer if they do not want to extend their contract beyond its expiration date, on June 30, 2024.
The player has reiterated his objective of fulfilling the last season that remains of his contract at the Parisian club, but has rejected, even in writing, the possibility of extending his commitment.
The future of Mbappé was one of the issues that featured in the presentation of Luis Enrique, who carefully avoided giving guarantees about the continuity of his star attacker, but assured that they are going to “try to have the best possible squad”.
Asked repeatedly by the press about whether the club had given him guarantees of Mbappé’s continuity before signing, Luis Enrique emphasized that “one is always open to countless things arising.”
“I have all the players with a contract,” he said, before adding enigmatically that “who are” these players “depends on the day to day, and this football is changing.”
“We are going to try to have the best squad possible,” he stressed, before adding that there is information that in any case they cannot divulge because it is confidential to the team. “What we talk about is between Luis Campos (the sports director) and me,” he said.
