Luis Campos shares fascinating insights on PSG, Luis Enrique and Pacho | OneFootball

Luis Campos, football advisor for Paris Saint-Germain since 2022, shared his insights in a lengthy interview with Marca. The Portuguese reveals his way of working with coach Luis Enrique, the philosophy implemented by the club in daily life and recruitment, including a great anecdote about the recruitment of Willian Pacho (24-year-old defender) during the summer of 2024.

Luis Campos: "In ten minutes, he had already told us everything we wanted to hear."

Was it easy to convince Nasser Al Khelaifi that Luis Enrique was the ideal man for PSG?

Yes, it was very easy. (…) We started by examining a series of potential coaches and evaluated them according to 25 different criteria... all to find the ideal person. We finally met Luis Enrique at his home, and the connection was so strong that in ten minutes, he had already told us everything we wanted to hear. After this meeting, I called Nasser and said: "Mr. President, he's the one we need." In two days, it was done. I felt such positive energy and such a will to win that I thought: "He's the one."

Luis Campos: "All the elements are in place for us to continue on the path to success."

Is it possible to replicate the sextuple in the future?

We would like to. We know it's very difficult and that no one has managed to replicate this feat, but someone has to try to do better. This PSG project is exciting because it's a very young team that plays beautiful football, with an exceptional coach, management, and president. All the elements are in place for us to continue on the path to success, and we certainly have the will, even though we know that in football, you can play very well without winning.

Two years ago, already with Luis Enrique, we were eliminated in the semi-final against Dortmund after hitting the posts five times. If just one shot had gone in, everything would have been different. But we have always progressed as a team. The team that finished last season had evolved considerably compared to the one that reached the semi-finals the previous year and won the championship.

Luis Campos: "He demands more and every day, he imagines something new."

We can and must continue like this because I see the team's progress in terms of development and new responsibilities. Luis never stops; every day, he demands more and every day, he imagines something new. I remember after the first season, I was thrilled with Luis and the new project. We had reached the semi-finals and won the championship, and we could still improve.

On the first day of the following season, Luis Enrique arrived and said to me: "Luis, you'll see, the players will change positions so much that the opponent won't know where they are." "Wow!" I thought, "What is he going to come up with? What new ideas will he propose?" And he was right.

During the fourth or fifth match, we played against Lille, and their captain, Benjamin André, who is 33 years old, came to see me at the end of the match and said: "Luis, I didn't understand your team at all! I didn't even know where the midfielders I was supposed to mark were! They changed positions so much that it's very difficult to play against you..." That's when I realized we were building something better than the previous year.

And I still feel it today because, despite all the injuries we've had this year, the team remains fresh and performing. I can already imagine what PSG will be like when all the players are available again and at the same level of physical and mental fitness. We will be very strong again because it's a daily requirement for everyone at the club, and especially for Luis Enrique during his training sessions.

Luis Campos: "If you're not going to train hard every day, don't come."

What is the daily work with Luis Enrique like? Is he as perfectionist, intense, and demanding as he seems?

Absolutely. He must sleep with his fingers in an electrical socket because he has so much energy. Every day, he arrives with the will to evolve, to progress. When we talk to a player about joining our project, we first present the collective sports project, what PSG is, then the individual project for the player, because they are two different and both important things.

There's no point in recruiting good players if there's no place for them. Luis Enrique asks me to tell each player: "If you're not going to train hard every day, don't come, because if you don't train hard every day, Luis Enrique will 'kill' you very quickly. You must understand that every training session is like a match against the best teams in the world, and you will have to give everything every day."

At the end of his first season, he told me one day: "Luis, either we improve the level of our daily training, ensuring that all players train hard, or I'm leaving." He instilled this requirement in me. So today, when we're looking for a player to recruit, the first thing I tell him is: "We know you well, but if you don't train at 100% every day, forget it, you won't play a single minute." And that's the truth.

Luis Campos: "My first year at PSG was very difficult."

When you arrived at PSG, you found a squad of 52 players that you had to reduce to 28. The sports director is always associated with player recruitment, but letting them go is certainly no easy task.

There are different types of sports directors. I'm not a manager; my experience throughout my career is valuable to me—as a coach, player, and even physical trainer... It allows me to support my coach in building his style of play. My first year at PSG was very difficult, but also very enriching, because it gave me the opportunity to work with individually incredible players, but who didn't fit together.

It's like trying to assemble the Eiffel Tower with pieces from other spectacular works of art from around the world, which don't fit together. They are still works of art, but they don't harmonize. Financial fair play forced us to reduce the squad, and I know from experience that it's impossible for a coach to manage so many players.

The first year, we played very well at the beginning of the season, but after the World Cup, things got complicated: some players returned very happy, others depressed, others injured, and the second part of the season was very difficult.

Luis Campos: "Despite all the respect and admiration we may have for individual talent, nothing is more important than the club."

With the arrival of Luis Enrique, we started to build differently. We are not only looking for talent; we are also looking for competitiveness, the thirst to win, and the desire to play as a team. The club comes before the player. Commitment is paramount. It is essential to understand that, despite all the respect and admiration we may have for individual talent, nothing is more important than the club.

PSG is more important than any player; it has its history and continues to build it. We have taken an important step and want to go further. For that, we understand that football is, and will always be, a team sport. I've heard that movies create stars, but stars don't make movies.

It's a bit the same for football: the collective allows individual talent to emerge. PSG is a good example of this. Today, everyone attacks, but everyone also defends. This allows us to be a team, to have a much stronger collective game. This is Luis Enrique's great contribution to this project: the concept of teamwork.

Luis Campos: "This sometimes forces us to take strict, almost educational measures, as in the case of Dembélé at Arsenal."

In high-level football, the hardest thing is to convince stars to put their egos aside and put their talent at the service of the team.

This is also a product of today's society. I'm 61 years old, the world has evolved and is different; with social media, individualism is much more present. Today's young people have grown up with a much more individualistic sensitivity, a less developed sense of the collective than young people of the past.

This is how society works, and this sometimes forces us to take strict, almost educational measures, as in the case of Dembélé at Arsenal—measures that help everyone understand that the club and the team's game project take precedence over their own individual project. When we all play together, we are much stronger.

All players love to attack; when they have the ball, we don't need to tell them to run. The hardest part is getting them to defend together, as a team, with organization. Luis has succeeded very well at PSG.

Luis Campos: "Football has undergone a great evolution."

This is all thanks to Luis Enrique. When the team doesn't have the ball, Dembélé, who won all the individual awards this year, throws himself at the opponent like a kamikaze to take it from him.

The leaders of a team become so naturally; they don't need to arrive and say: "I'm the leader, I'm the one who earns the most money." It doesn't work like that. A leader must lead by example. Luis embodies this leadership daily: "You have to defend like crazy, like a beast, and attack like a beast too." Leaders must be able to convey this on the field.

Football has undergone a great evolution, a fact that I try to make my entourage understand, and which often sparks discussions. This great evolution does not lie in the physical aspect, as is often heard. It's an evolution, of course, but the real evolution, the one that explains a lot about the current Portuguese player, and the Spanish player as well, is the understanding of the game, the intellectual aspect, their cognitive abilities.

Luis Campos: "The second ball is more important than the first."

This is where the player makes the difference. Luis tells the players: "Don't make fouls. If you make fouls, you don't play for me. Don't throw yourself into duels like crazy. The second ball is more important than the first." When you hear that, you understand the importance of the cognitive aspect, the intellectual dimension, the understanding of the game.

Today, for a player, this ability to understand the game and make decisions on the field makes all the difference. Hearing this makes me think and convinces me more and more to look for players who are smarter than physically gifted, because physical skills are easy to develop, but the intellectual aspect and understanding of the game are more difficult.

Luis Campos: "Fabián is not very fast, nor exceptionally elegant, but he is very intelligent on the field."

Listening to you, I think of Vitinha and his understanding of the game.

Fabián Ruiz. Fabián is not very fast, nor exceptionally elegant, but he is very intelligent on the field. Kroos, Modric... These are cerebral midfielders, and if you add to that the incredible energy of a João Neves or a Zaire-Emery... The intellectual aspect of the game has become vital today in all positions.

Building a team means looking for players capable of running, we agree, but also mentally strong to withstand all the pressure that big clubs demand: so many matches, finals, national selections, and the need to adapt to the coach's instructions, to a style of play different from that of the club. This generates considerable wear. To all these requirements, you must add the ability to think about the game, to understand it.

The star is the club, the team, or Luis Enrique?

Everyone. Luis likes to talk about his time at PSG; he has a lot of influence here and he knows perfectly well how important he has been for us. He is happier with the team's victories than with his individual successes; he is a good example of this. He knows very well that when the team wins, he wins too. These statistics, as important as they are, are nothing compared to the pleasure we have in watching the team play and seeing him train every day.

Luis Campos: "Luis Enrique shared his goals with me, and I replied: 'In three years.' He retorted: 'No, no, this year.'"

In terms of collective performance, PSG and Arsenal are a cut above other clubs.

In terms of collective play, we quickly moved from a team criticized for its excessive individualism to the team Luis Enrique wanted. The change was faster than I imagined. Luis Enrique shared his goals with me, and I replied: "In three years." He retorted: "No, no, this year."

We quickly moved from an individualistic style of play to a collective style, and successfully, because without results, everything becomes complicated. For us, it was a real lesson: in football, to win, you have to play as a team. You can win the title of best defender, best midfielder, or top scorer, but if the team doesn't win, all that is useless.

Luis Campos: "Finding talents driven by the will to win."

Is it easy to make this decision with a coach who has such a strong vision? How does he discuss it with you and the president?

This comes from the intelligence of the coach and the president. At PSG, we form a trio that works wonderfully. I have a strong personality, Luis Enrique has a very strong personality, and Nasser Al-Khelaïfi too, but our success is based on mutual respect. We respect each other enormously, we listen to each other, and we understand each other.

Luis knew that from the first year, he wouldn't have everything he wanted, because it's impossible to transform an entire team in one year. Little by little, we have succeeded; we have sought players whose style of play matched his, and we will continue in this direction. That's why, in theory, after these three years, we should be stronger, but Luis said: "No, no, we will be stronger now."

We are increasingly looking for player profiles that match his project, his way of playing, and his vision of the game. For example, the idea of recruiting young players. At PSG, it's not just about spotting young players, but finding talents driven by the will to win. Because what matters to us is not just talent, but the thirst for competition.

The anecdote about Pacho's recruitment.

Is artificial intelligence and big data transforming recruitment, or is the most important thing ultimately having the gift to

spot talents?

I believe that technology will never surpass the human element, because our ability to feel remains stronger than all the data we are given. I love technology, but in the end, I need to feel, to see, to perceive, to know... Often, it comes from a player's attitude, a lunch, a dinner, a walk, listening to them or understanding a gesture.

Pacho is a good example. When I first contacted him, he was in Ecuador, and I told him: "I will come to see you to present the club's project." He replied: "Mr. Luis Campos, you say PSG wants to recruit me? I'll be in Madrid tomorrow! I'll arrive at 9 a.m." Wow! I called Luis Enrique: "This guy will give everything for us." His attitude showed me that I had found someone hungry for victory.

I already knew him from the field, but he also made a very good impression on me. I went from Paris to Madrid, we spent the day together, and at the end, I was saying to myself: "He must come to PSG." Shortly after their first meeting, Luis Enrique was already discussing tactics with him, what he expected from him, how he should behave on the field... It was a beautiful moment. Pacho's story perfectly illustrates our policy.

Luis Campos: "We couldn't let Kylian's situation affect everyone at the club, no matter how talented he is."

Not everything is easy or idyllic at PSG. Two years ago, the club went through a difficult period with Kylian Mbappé's last season and his tumultuous transfer to Real Madrid. How does the sports director manage such a situation?

I have a special relationship with Kylian since he was 14 or 15 years old. I won't forget it, and I won't hide it, but in this situation, I tried to remain as detached and rational as possible. I always thought about protecting the team and the other players. We couldn't let Kylian's situation affect everyone at the club, no matter how talented he is.

My concern, shared by the coach and the club's management, was to ensure that others felt important. We managed to handle certain emotions because Kylian is still the captain of the French team, he is still the same player, but at the same time, we had to protect the club and all those who had agreed to join the PSG project.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.