Former Barcelona and Spain coach Luis Enrique has been chosen as Paris Saint-Germain’s next coach on a two-year contract, the French champions announced on Wednesday.
The 53-year-old, who has been a free agent since being fired as Spain coach in December, replaces Christophe Galtier, who left the club earlier in the day.
PSG revealed Luis Enrique at a press conference alongside Qatar-backed club president Nasser al-Khelaifi at their spanking new training base in Poissy, 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.”
The new coach, whose full name is Luis Enrique Martinez Garcia, is the eighth man to head the club since the seismic Qatari acquisition in 2011 and, like those before him, will be tasked with bringing the club the elusive Champions League triumph.
Paris St Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and new coach Luis Enrique pose with a club shirt during the press conference
PSG has never won Europe’s most coveted club championship, coming close in 2020 when they were defeated in the final by Bayern Munich.
They have been eliminated in the last 16 in five of the last seven seasons, falling to Bayern in the most recent season. Galtier’s defeat was expensive.
Luis Enrique comes with Champions League experience, having won the competition as coach of Barcelona in 2015, when a superb team led by an attack of Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suarez defeated Juventus in the final.
He now joins a club that is rebuilding after Messi’s departure at the end of his two-year contract.
