Luis Enrique’s post-Mbappé prediction comes true with PSG reaching back-to-back UCL finals: “We’ll be better”

Kylian Mbappé scored 256 goals in 308 games across seven seasons with Paris Saint-Germain, during which the French club won 15 trophies. With numbers like those, predicting things would improve without him, as Luis Enrique did, felt overly optimistic. The Spanish coach, however, has been proven right.

PSG, backed by Qatar Sports Investments and controlled by the Qatari government, had already become the dominant force in France long before Mbappé’s arrival in 2017, initially on loan from Monaco. A year later, the attacker made a permanent €180 million ($209 million) move to Paris, becoming the second most expensive player in history.

The Mbappé era in Paris

Mbappé repaid the huge transfer fee in goals, delivering domestic trophy after domestic trophy. But the prize PSG really wanted, the Champions League, continued to elude them. Until Luis Enrique arrived.

The former Barcelona coach was appointed in the summer of 2023, shortly after Mbappé announced he would leave the club at the end of his contract, which expired the following year. Despite the France captain’s 44 goals in his final season, Luis Enrique was not especially sad to see him go.

Luis Enrique’s bold claim

“Next year we’ll be better, without doubt,” the PSG boss stated during his debut season, before delivering what many interpreted as a stinging message to his star forward. “When a player goes where he wants that means there are parts of our play that I don’t control. And next year I am going to control all of them. Without exception.”

PSG’s Champions League success after Mbappé

PSG’s domestic dominance has remained, but it is in the Champions League where they are truly judged, and where they have finally shone.

In Mbappé’s seven seasons, the club reached the Champions League final only once, losing to Bayern Munich in 2020. They were beaten in the semifinals twice, including in Luis Enrique’s first year, and lost in the round of 16 four times.

Since Mbappé moved to Real Madrid, however, PSG have won the Champions League for the first time in their history, thrashing Inter Milan 5-0 in last year’s final, and could go back-to-back when they face Arsenal in Budapest on Saturday.

This is what Luis Enrique having full control looks like.

The Mbappé contrast in Madrid

Incidentally, Madrid, the Champions League masters, have not won the trophy since Mbappé joined in the summer of 2024. Since moving to Spain, the French superstar has continued his remarkable goalscoring rate, 86 goals in 103 games, but has only a UEFA Super Cup and a FIFA Intercontinental Cup to show for it.

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