Luis Enrique

(Luis Enrique Martínez García)

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Born
1970 (55 years old)
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Gijón, Spain

Position
Manager

Status
Coaching

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Height
180 cm

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Sport

Soccer

Team
Paris SG

League
French Ligue 1

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Description

Luis Enrique Martínez García (Spanish pronunciation: ; born 8 May 1970), known as Luis Enrique, is a Spanish football manager and former player. He is currently the head coach of Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain.

A versatile player with good technique, he was capable of playing in several positions, but usually played as a midfielder or forward, and was also noted for his temperament and stamina. Starting in 1991 and ending in 2004, he represented both Real Madrid and Barcelona with both individual and team success, appearing in more than 500 official games and scoring more than 100 goals. He appeared with the Spain national team in three World Cups and one European Championship.

Luis Enrique started working as a manager in 2008 with Barcelona B, before moving to Roma three years later. In the 2013–14 season he managed Celta, before returning to Barcelona and winning the treble in his first year and the double in the second. In 2018, he was appointed Spain head coach for the first time before resigning for family reasons in 2019; he reassumed the position the same year and subsequently led the team to the semi-finals of Euro 2020 and the second place in the 2020–21 Nations League, resigning at the end of the 2022 World Cup. In July 2023, he joined French club Paris Saint-Germain, claiming three trophies in his first season and four in his second including the first Champions League in their history.

Luis Enrique was born in Gijón, Asturias, and began his career with local Sporting de Gijón, where he gained the nickname Lucho after Luis Flores, a Mexican forward in the team. He then spent most of his playing days with the two biggest Spanish clubs: first Real Madrid for five seasons and, in 1996, after seeing out his contract and notably scoring in a 5–0 home win against Barcelona in January 1995, stating later he "rarely felt appreciated by the Real Madrid supporters and didn't have good memories there", he moved to their fierce rivals at the Camp Nou on a free transfer. The Catalans' supporters were at first hesitant about their new acquisition, but he soon won the hearts of the culers, staying eight years, eventually becoming team captain and scoring several times in El Clásico against his former employers; he passionately celebrated at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, where he grabbed his jersey after a 25-yard strike that beat the opposing goalkeeper.

Enrique scored 46 La Liga goals in his first three seasons with Barcelona, with the side finishing runner-up in 1996–97 and subsequently winning back-to-back domestic championship accolades. Furthermore, he was named Spanish Player of the Year by El País in the following campaign. He also scored the opening goal in the 1997 UEFA Super Cup, a 3–1 aggregate triumph against Borussia Dortmund.

During his final years in Barcelona, Enrique was often injured, and did not want to renew his contract. He had been offered a deal by his first club Sporting, which he, however, declined, stating that "he wouldn't be able to reach the level he demanded of himself" and that "he wouldn't be doing Sporting much of a favour by going there." His concerns about his level and fitness made him retire on 10 August 2004 at the age of 34, and he finished his professional career with league totals of 400 games and 102 goals, being named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March.

Luis Enrique played for Spain in three FIFA World Cups: 1994, 1998 and 2002 (as well as UEFA Euro 1996), and scored 12 goals while gaining 62 caps. He was also a member of the gold-winning squad at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and made his debut for the main side on 17 April 1991, featuring for 22 minutes in a 0–2 friendly loss to Romania in Cáceres.

In the 1994 World Cup, held in the United States, Enrique scored his first international goal, in the round-of-16 3–0 win over Switzerland in Washington, D.C. In the 2–1 quarter-final defeat against Italy at Foxboro Stadium, Mauro Tassotti's elbow made contact with his face to bloody effect, but during the match the incident went unpunished – Tassotti was banned for eight games afterwards; when Spain met Italy at Euro 2008 on 22 June, to battle for a place in the semi-finals, Luis Enrique reportedly called for the team to "take revenge" for the 1994 World Cup incident by beating Italy. Tassotti, an assistant coach with AC Milan at the time, told the newspaper Marca that he was tired of always being reminded of this incident, and that he had never intended to hurt the Spaniard.

At the 1998 World Cup, Enrique played a major role in a 6–1 rout of Bulgaria in the last game of the group, scoring and assisting once and also winning a penalty, but the Spaniards were eliminated nonetheless. On 5 June of the following year he scored a hat-trick, in a 9–0 win in Villarreal over San Marino in the Euro 2000 qualifiers.

On 23 June 2002, Enrique retired from international football, in order to give the younger players more playing time and focus only on his club.

Luis Enrique married his longtime partner Elena Cullell on 27 December 1997. Their youngest daughter, Xana, died of bone cancer at age 9 on 29 August 2019.

After retiring from football, Enrique lived for a while in Australia to practice surfing. He took part in the 2005 edition of the New York City Marathon, finished the Amsterdam Marathon in 2006, the Firenze Marathon in 2007 and the Marathon des Sables in 2008, while also entering and finishing Frankfurt Ironman in 2007. He was due to take part in the Klagenfurt Ironman competition in July 2008, but eventually declined due to his engagement as manager of Barcelona B.

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