Enrique’s authority is absolute when it comes to playing matters at PSG.
Pierre-Etienne Minonzio, based in Paris with influential sports paper L’Equipe, told BBC Sport: «People at PSG understood there had been a problem of authority in the last few years.
«Galtier was a French manager, and a good one, but lacked the experience to impose his views. He was a very good manager, but not strong enough to face Mbappe and say things to him.
«It was the same with Mauricio Pochettino. It was always said his obsession was to have peace in the dressing room. He never took any decisions that went against Messi and Mbappe,
«Enrique was not having that. He told PSG clearly ‘If I am the boss and I will be the boss’. He’s now the guy who embodies the whole club, the whole team.»
Enrique is obsessive about PSG and his own self-discipline down to the finest details, with his watch even alerting him if he has not carried out any stretching or movement for 30 minutes.
In 2007, he successfully took on the Frankfurt Ironman challenge — a 2.4-mile swim, a 118-mile cycle and a full marathon. In 2008, he ran the gruelling Marathon de Sables, a 155-mile race staged over six days in the Sahara desert.
He is, however, someone with true perspective after losing his nine-year-old daughter Xana to a rare form of bone cancer in 2019.
Enrique has said: «Her body is gone, but she hasn’t died. She’s still with us.
«Physically, she may not be here, but spiritually she is. Because every day we talk about her, we laugh, and we remember because I think Xana still sees us.»
It enables him to reflect on the realities of football, once saying: «I’m not afraid of the worst in football If they sack me, no problem. The next day, I’ll go for a cycling trip.»
Should Enrique win his second Champions League, following a triumph with Barcelona in 2015, it will be a moment of history and high emotion in Munich.
