Discover how the Paris Saint-Germain manager rebuilt the locker room's mentality, leading the team to Champions League glory and placing nine of his stars among the Ballon d'Or elite.

Paris Saint-Germain currently stands as one of the most dominant teams in world football. After winning the 2024-25 Champions League with a historic 5-0 victory over Inter Milan, the club is hungry for more, now chasing a second consecutive European title—an unprecedented feat in French football.

At the helm of this project is Luis Enrique. The Spanish coach arrived in 2023 with a clear mandate: build a new team, free of untouchable superstars, and singularly focused on a collective goal. Two seasons later, his vision has been vindicated.

The impact of his work was on full display at the latest Ballon d'Or ceremony, where PSG had a total of nine nominees. Ousmane Dembélé lifted the prestigious trophy, while Luis Enrique himself was awarded the Johan Cruyff Trophy for best coach.

How is such a team built? What does Luis Enrique do day-to-day to lead a young squad to a Champions League title with such authority? The answer lies not just on the tactics board; the real key is mental preparation.

In this Champions Academy feature, we break down his philosophy: how he prepares his players, why his training sessions break from convention, and the secret behind his famous "controlled chaos" method.

Rule #1: The Group Above All Else

Upon arriving at the Poissy training center, the Spaniard's diagnosis was clear: PSG had to stop being a collection of individuals and become a true team. He established an absolute law: no player is bigger than the crest. Not stars, not top scorers, not even Ballon d'Or winners.

The era of individualism was over. This principle dictates every training session and every match. "I will never allow any player to believe they are more important than the club. Not me, not the sporting director, not the president, and not any player. Let that be clear," the manager warned in a press conference.

With this firm stance, Luis Enrique ensures two things: control and equality. Control, because the manager is in charge of the locker room. Equality, because under the same rules, there are no privileges. By eliminating hierarchies, internal competition intensifies, and the group grows stronger.

The message resonated so deeply that the team's own leaders now champion the idea. Ousmane Dembélé made it clear after a 2026 loss to Rennes: "Last season, we put the club, the crest, Paris Saint-Germain, before ourselves. We need to get back to that."

There are no egos, only a system where everyone is united. The youngest players have also internalized this, as Warren Zaïre-Emery summarized in a press conference: "We are, first and foremost, a group. Individual trophies are secondary."

"I am a coach who tries to control everything I can control." - Luis EnriqueRule #2: Everyone Runs

For Luis Enrique, a winning mentality is forged daily on the training ground. A scene from the documentary 'You Have No Idea' perfectly illustrates this. Before a 2024 match against Barcelona, the coach explained his philosophy to Kylian Mbappé, who had been his player until that season.

"In attack, I already know you're a god. But on the day you're not attacking, you have to be the best defensive player in history. That's a leader. That's what Michael Jordan did," the coach told the French forward, who listened intently.

That message applies to the entire squad. If you want to be the best, you must be willing to get your hands dirty and give maximum effort, regardless of your position. Everyone must "leave it all on the field" and suffocate the opposition.

There are no relaxed training sessions at PSG. "My idea is for every session to be a competitive match," the coach explained. Every drill involves real pressure. The squad is constantly rotated, and no one knows if they will start until the last minute, regardless of their status.

Dembélé himself confessed how they live with this uncertainty: "He told us that if we don't press, if we don't defend, someone will take our spot, so we all have to defend." This competitive threat prevents anyone from easing up.

The team competes at 100% against itself, ensuring they are at their peak before facing any opponent. Once the referee blows the whistle, Luis Enrique's suffocating machine simply has to execute what it has practiced all week.

Rule #3: Innovation as a Method

"I am a coach who tries to control everything I can control." This sentence perfectly encapsulates Luis Enrique's methodology. The former FC Barcelona and Spanish National Team coach leaves nothing to chance.

To achieve this total control in modern football, he has transformed the PSG Campus into a technological laboratory.

His most famous tool is the scaffolding tower, a structure that gives him a panoramic view to correct positional errors during training sessions.

However, Luis Enrique's greatest innovation is immediacy. Instead of reviewing videos the next day in a dark room, he installed a giant screen at pitch level. "It's for reviewing any tactical concept. I show you the video on the field, and you train it right away," explained the coach.

Combined with speakers, microphones, and real-time GPS data, his corrections are surgical. If something goes wrong, the session is paused, the screen is reviewed, and the drill is repeated. This technology enhances his players' tactical intelligence, ensuring every weekend move is rehearsed to perfection.

Rule Four: Emotional Control

Historically, the environment surrounding PSG has been a media pressure cooker, where any stumble could ignite a drama. To shield his squad, Luis Enrique has adopted one final, crucial role: serving as the team's sole lightning rod.

His strategy is to absorb all the criticism. By drawing the controversies and critiques toward himself, he allows the players to maintain emotional control, freeing them from that burden to focus solely on playing.

"I have no problem with it; in fact, I thrive on it. I'm much more motivated by criticism than by praise, much more," declared the ever-defiant Luis Enrique during one of his sharp exchanges with a journalist at a press conference.

His confrontational attitude with the media is a pure emotional management tool. While he monopolizes the external noise, silence and hard work reign at the PSG campus. He takes responsibility for the "chaos" outside to guarantee peace within.

PSG's 2025 Ballon d'Or Nominees Ousmane Dembélé: 1st place Vitinha: 3rd place Achraf Hakimi: 6th place Gianluigi Donnarumma: 9th place Nuno Mendes: 10th place Khvicha Kvaratskhelia: 11th place Désiré Doué: 14th place João Neves: 19th place Fabián Ruiz: 24th placeControlled Chaos: Golden Results

No special privileges, constant squad rotation, real-time corrections, and a coach who absorbs all criticism. The sum of these four rules defines Luis Enrique's "controlled chaos method."

What does this mean in practice? It's simple: Luis Enrique creates instability and uncertainty among his players (the chaos) so that absolutely no one can afford to relax. However, he holds the reins of everything that happens on a tactical, physical, and emotional level (the control). Nothing is left to chance.

After two seasons in Paris, the formula is already a resounding success. A historic Champions League title (the Parisian club's first), a Ballon d'Or winner, and eight other nominees confirm it.

Today, PSG no longer dominates because of the millions invested in the transfer market, but because of a relentless method where pure talent is combined with team effort. This is, simply, the Luis Enrique effect.