Spain coach Luis Enrique looks increasingly likely to leave the job to go back to club management at the end of the World Cup, after the president of the Spanish Football Federation said his manager had already turned down a huge offer from the Premier League once before.
The 52-year-old former Barcelona and Roma coach has given his world to Federation president Luis Rubiales that he will sit down with him as soon as the World Cup ends. Rubiales told Cadena Ser that a decision should be made in January by the latest.
Speaking to the Spanish radio programme El Larguero Rubiales said: ‘We cannot compete with clubs that put down 10 or 20m euros. We will not do it and Luis Enrique knows that. He rejected a huge amount of money before. When we get back to Spain we will analyze everything together.’
Luis Enrique was wanted by Manchester United before they hired Erik ten Hag, and in 2018 he was close to accepting an offer from then-Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich but he took over Spain instead.
Rubiales added: ‘Before accepting our offer, he rejected a huge offer a couple of weeks before from the Premier League. Then he accepted our offer, which was vastly inferior. It was as much as we could afford. We can’t match that sort of money but the financial side was not a problem because he was completely committed to us.’
Rubiales is resigned to the possibility of losing his coach after the tournament and when asked if he wanted him to stay limited his answer to: ‘I want to win the World Cup, after that if he stays or doesn’t stay because we can’t reach an agreement, we just have to be grateful.’
If Luis Enrique does walk away in January he is likely to wait until the end of the season to walk back into club football. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are both suitors in Spain but both are tied to current coaches.
Barça want to be patient with Xavi who was unable to guide them into the Champions League knockout stages but does have them top of La Liga.
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone has a contract until 2024 and has no intention of walking away.
If neither move for the former Real Madrid and Barcelona player he could fulfill a dream he did not manage to fulfill in his playing days. Asked recently on Twitch where he wishes he’d played he said: ‘England definitely.
The Italian league was very strong in my era but playing in England would have helped me with my level of English and I would have been able to experience the more physical, more intense football that they have there, and experience a different culture
