Luis Enrique extends contract at Barcelona to end speculation he will leave Nou Camp

Barcelona boss Luis Enrique extends deal with club until 2017
Enrique, 45, won the treble in first season in charge at Nou Camp

Published:
15:42 GMT, 9 June 2015

|
Updated:
15:51 GMT, 9 June 2015

View
comments

Barcelona’s treble-winning coach Luis Enrique has committed his future to the club ending speculation he would walk out after making history in his first season in charge.

On Tuesday just before Josep Maria Bartomeu stepped down as president so that the club’s electoral process could officially begin he confirmed that the 45-year-old coach had extended his contract until 2017.

‘We have Luis Enrique for two more years,’ he said speaking alongside the three trophies won by the manager this season.

Luis Enrique has guided Barcelona to the Treble in his first season in charge at the Catalan giants

Enrique lifts the Champions League trophy after winning against Juventus in Berlin on Saturday

It is an incredible turnaround for a coach who looked to have a player mutiny on his hands at the start of the year. He rowed with Lionel Messi in a training session, dropped four first team starters for the first game of the year against Real Sociedad and promptly lost it 1-0.

His Sporting Director, Andoni Zubizarreta was sacked in the following days amid stories that the players had been given assurances that the manager would not be kept on at the end of the season but that a peace pact had been signed to see the club through to the summer.

There was a marked change in his managerial style with a more conciliatory approach replacing the abrasive leadership of last year. And having not named the same side for two consecutive matches during the first half of the campaign he began to settle on a fixed first team XI in the second part of the campaign.

As the team started winning games and ultimately trophies relations seemed to thaw and there were warm embraces with all the players especially Leo Messi at the end of the European Cup final.

Luis Enrique’s future may still depend on club elections expected to be held on 18 of July. Current president Bartomeu will stand again and has done his chances no harm by the way he has led the institution in the last month of the season even managing to convince Dani Alves to sign the deal offered him.

Dani Alves also signed a new deal with the club on Tuesday, agreeing a two-year contract

But he may still be sufficiently tainted by his part in the last administration who dragged the club through the courts with both the alleged fiscal irregularity of the Neymar transfer and a failure to abide by Fifa’s rules on the signing of under-aged players that meant the club incurred a transfer ban.

If the 100,000 members expected to vote next month do decide on a change that change will almost certainly be the return of former president Joan Laporta who should announce his intention to stand this week.

Luis Enrique would then need to sit down with Laporta to rubber stamp his continuity. But on Monday he left for his holidays convinced that he will be Barcelona’s first team coach next season.