In a room at the Paris Saint-Germain sports city, Luis Enrique, standing, meets Kylian Mbappé, who sits in the first row of seven. They are alone. After five minutes, the coach asks, "Is it clear to you?" The Frenchman says "yes," and his coach replies, "thank you." They do not shake hands, and the team's biggest star leaves through the door. Those five minutes sum up the relationship between Luis Enrique and Mbappé: the passion and intensity of the Spanish coach and the lack of chemistry between them. Today they meet again, through PSG and Real Madrid, in the Club World Cup semifinals.
That meeting between them was one of the most talked about because it was featured in the documentary Luis Enrique: You have no f***ing idea. A conversation of several minutes in which the coach tried to convince Mbappé of the need to get involved in pressing and defensive duties. A scene deliberately chosen. It took place during the 23-24 Champions League quarter-finals against Barcelona, which PSG would win, but a few days later they lost in the semifinals against Borussia Dortmund, who would be Real Madrid's opponent in the Wembley final.
Luis Enrique's speech to Mbappé says it all about the type of player the coach wanted in attack and explains why Ousmane Dembélé could win his first Ballon d'Or next October. "I've read that you like Michael Jordan, Jordan grabbed everyone by the balls and defended like a son of a b****. You have to set that example, first as a person and then as a player," Luis Enrique tells Mbappé, standing and gesturing, while Mbappé, seated, remains impassive, without speaking.
"You think you just have to score goals, you're a phenomenon, a world-class player, but that's not enough for me. A true leader is one who, when he can't help us with goals, helps us in everything defensively," he insists. "If you take Ousmane, Barcola, Ramos, or whoever and you set yourself as an example to press, do you know what we have? A f***ing team machine," Luis Enrique continues, provoking Mbappé with the possible outcome he will have in Paris.
"I want you to leave here in a big way, Kyky, no doubt. But you have to earn it. The day you don't attack, you have to be the best defender in history. That's a leader, that's Michael Jordan. Is that clear to you?" the coach concluded.
A few weeks later, Mbappé announced his move to Madrid, and Luis Enrique celebrated in his own way with this statement: "We are going to improve the results, without a doubt. Having a player (Mbappé) who moved wherever he wanted meant that there were game situations that I didn't control. Next year, I will control them all. All of them."
A premonition of what the season would be in Paris, with the conquest of the Champions League, winning 5-0 against Inter Milan in the final, as the icing on the cake. Meanwhile, Mbappé finished the season as the top scorer on the continent but was eliminated, along with Madrid, in the Champions League quarter-finals by Arsenal. The Frenchman had some good knockout rounds, like against Manchester City, but he didn't perform well against the London team. A general symptom.
In between, Mbappé has been involved in a legal battle with PSG and with Nasser Al Khelaifi, who has always left him messages in the media whenever possible. "Now the team is the star," stated the Qatari during the season, in a direct message to the player. At one point, the PSG president wanted to sideline Mbappé for not renewing his contract with the team, and Luis Enrique intervened to resolve the conflict, but the fight has reached the courts over the payment of the player's last salary installment.
Mbappé is demanding 55 million from PSG in salaries and bonuses and has accused Al Khelaifi of "mental harassment" and "extortion" for the pressures received during the negotiations for his 2023 renewal, a lawsuit that he has finally withdrawn this week, just before meeting at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, "out of a desire to calm the situation on the legal front and to focus exclusively on the sporting aspect," according to L'Equipe.
The intensity and pressure, the aspects that Luis Enrique insisted on with Mbappé, are two of the most repeated words by Xabi Alonso in the month he has been in charge of Real Madrid. The forward, who suffered a severe gastroenteritis in the early days of the World Cup, has not yet been a starter in the tournament and hopes that moment will come this afternoon against his former team.
On the table, the great performance of Gonzalo, both in attack (four goals) and in the defensive aspect, where he keeps pressing the opponent's exit. Mbappé is essential for Alonso, but he will ask him for what Luis Enrique asked: to be Michael Jordan in all aspects.