Paris Saint-Germain cemented their place at the pinnacle of world football under Luis Enrique, who made history by winning two consecutive UEFA Champions League titles (2024–2025 and 2025–2026) with the Parisian club.

With this unprecedented achievement for French football, the Asturian manager added a third ‘Big Ears’ to his personal honours list and established himself as a leading figure amongst the elite of international football.

His approach, characterised by collective play, physical intensity and tactical rigour, transformed the team into a relentless force, free from reliance on any one untouchable individual.

And his recent nomination for Manager of the Year recognises a glorious era underpinned by titles, a commanding presence in the knockout stages and the emergence of several players from his squad amongst the nominees for the ‘Ballon d'Or’ award.

But… what is his secret to reigning at the top? We take a look at his four golden rules.

Rule number one: The team comes first

Upon setting foot in the Poissy training centre, the Asturian’s assessment was clear: PSG had to stop being a collection of star players and become a real team. Thus, he established an absolute rule: no player is above the club crest. Not stars, not top scorers, not even Ballon d'Or winners.

The era of individualism is over. This requirement shapes every training session and every match. “I will never allow any player to think they are more important than the club. Not me, not the sporting director, not the chairman, nor any player. Let that be clear,” the manager warned at a press conference.

With this firm stance, Luis Enrique ensures two things: control and equality. Control, because the manager is in charge in the dressing room. Equality, because under the same rules, there are no privileges. By eliminating hierarchies, internal competition increases and the squad is strengthened.

The message struck such a chord that the team’s leaders themselves are championing the idea. Ousmane Dembélé made this clear following a defeat to Rennes in 2026: “Last season we put the club, the crest and Paris Saint-Germain first, before thinking of ourselves. We must get back to that.”

There are no egos. There is a system where everyone is one. The younger players have also taken this to heart, as Warren Zaïre-Emery summed up at a press conference: “We are, above all, a team. Individual honours take a back seat.”

Rule number two: Everyone runs here

For Luis Enrique, the winning mentality is cultivated every day at the training ground. A scene from the documentary ‘You’ve Got No Idea’ illustrates this perfectly. Before playing against Barcelona in 2024, the manager explained it to Kylian Mbappé, who had been his player up until that season.

“When you’re attacking, I know you’re a god. But on the day you’re not attacking, you have to be the best defender in history. That’s what a leader is. That’s what Michael Jordan did,” the manager told the French striker, who was listening intently.

That message applies to the whole squad. If you want to be the best, you have to be prepared to get your hands dirty and give it your all, regardless of your position on the pitch. Everyone must ‘give their all’ and suffocate the opposition.

At PSG, there are no relaxed training sessions. “My idea is that every session should be a competitive match,” explained the manager. Every drill involves real pressure. Rotation is constant and nobody knows whether they’ll be in the starting line-up until the very last minute, regardless of their status.

Dembélé himself revealed how they cope with this uncertainty: “He told us that if we don’t press, if we don’t defend, someone will take our place, so we all have to defend.” This sporting threat ensures no one lets their guard down.

The team competes at 100 per cent against itself, ensuring they are in top form before facing any opponent. Once the referee blows the whistle to start the match, Luis Enrique’s relentless machine simply has to put into practice what they’ve worked on during the week.

Rule number three: Innovation as a method

“I’m a manager who tries to control everything I can control.” This sentence perfectly sums up Luis Enrique’s methodology. Literally, the former manager of FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team leaves not a single centimetre to improvisation.

To achieve this total control in modern football, he transformed the PSG training ground into a technological laboratory. His most famous tool is the scaffolding: a tower from which he directs training sessions with a panoramic view to correct positional errors.

However, his greatest innovation is immediacy. Instead of reviewing videos the following day in a darkened room, he installed a giant screen right by the pitch: “It’s useful for going over any tactical concept. I show you the video on the pitch and you practise it straight away,” explained Luis Enrique.

With loudspeakers, microphones and real-time GPS data, the corrections are surgical. If something goes wrong, he pauses, looks at the screen and repeats it. This technology multiplies his players’ tactical intelligence, ensuring that every move for the weekend is 100 per cent rehearsed.

Rule number four: Emotional control

Historically, the environment at PSG has been a media pressure cooker. Any slip-up would spark a drama. That’s why, to protect his squad, Luis Enrique took on one final key role: to be the team’s sole lightning rod.

His strategy is to take all the flak. If the controversies and criticism are directed at him, the players will have greater emotional control and will be free from that burden, allowing them to focus solely on playing.

“I’ve got no problem with it and I’m quite happy with the way things are in that regard. What’s more, I’m far more motivated by criticism than by praise – quite a lot more,” declared the ever-defiant Luis Enrique, in one of his spiky exchanges with a journalist at a press conference.

His defiant attitude towards the media is a pure tool of emotional management. Whilst he absorbs the external noise, silence and hard work reign at the PSG training ground. He takes responsibility for the external ‘chaos’ to ensure internal peace.

The result: The formula for back-to-back titles

All these principles define Luis Enrique’s approach to work and explain why his team was able to prevail on every front.

The two consecutive European titles and the footballing dominance on display confirm the validity of his approach at the helm of Paris Saint-Germain.