PARIS: As Paris St Germain turned the page on the Kylian Mbappe era, coach Luis Enrique wasted no time in reshaping the identity of a club long built around individual stars and the Spaniard’s method was quick to bear fruit.

PSG, who have faced several embarrassing misfortunes in the Champions League, are now gearing up to play in the final of Europe’s elite club competition against Inter Milan on Saturday.

Mbappe, who officially left PSG at the end of last season and has joined Real Madrid, had been the undisputed face of the French club since Neymar’s departure and Lionel Messi’s brief spell in Paris.

But under Luis Enrique the French champions have undergone a decisive shift away from a superstar-based model towards a more disciplined, collective-driven footballing philosophy.

The Spaniard, known for his abrasive and uncompromising personality, made his intentions clear early in his tenure.

“Our game does not consist in letting Mbappe do what he wants,” Luis Enrique said last season in a documentary centred around his spell at PSG, when the forward made public his decision to leave as a free agent. “That was the old philosophy [of the club], which never won a major

trophy.”

The message was unmistakable and the culture around the club changed.

“There’s been a shift in the mindset this season,” Ousmane Dembele, who has turned from an enigmatic, wasteful winger into a formidable number nine, said last week. “The coach handled everything.”

Luis Enrique’s tenure has seen the return of intense training sessions, strict tactical demands and an insistence on collective responsibility, with no player absolved of defensive duties.

His confrontational, no-nonsense approach stands in stark contrast to the player-driven environment of recent years, which insiders say often prioritised keeping marquee names content over footballing coherence.

The results have been immediate.

PSG wrapped up another Ligue 1 title and reached the latter stages of the Champions League playing with a structure and clarity rarely seen in recent seasons, while also claiming a record-extending 16th French Cup.

When Mbappe made clear last season that he would leave, the club sought to fight the France forward’s departure, but Luis Enrique was all smiles.

“If I think I’ll do better next season? No doubt. Because the fact to have one player who can do

whatever he wants on the pitch implies there are situations I cannot control,” he said.

“Next season, I will control all of them. Without exception.”

Often derided for his alleged haughty attitude last term when PSG lacked coordination, Luis Enrique always said ‘You cannot understand’.

He has since then proven his critics wrong and now he is one game away from joining an elite group of coaches to have won the Champions League twice.

His last success was in 2015 when he led a Barcelona side spearheaded by Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez to the title.

“Getting to a Champions League final is always difficult. All players and coaches dream of it, but not everyone gets there,” said the Asturian. “The job I did at Barca was extraordinary. Even if people said it was easy to win the Champions League with that team, it wasn’t.”

After three years at Barcelona he had two spells in charge of Spain, taking a time out in 2019 when his daughter Xana died of bone cancer.

Now he believes the experience of those years has helped him become a better coach in Paris.

“I have more experience now. I remember before my first final I was really stressed,” he said. “This time I hope to transmit a message of calm. Otherwise I think I have learnt from my mistakes and that has helped me get where I am now.”

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2025