Champions League final: Luis Enrique coy on Barcelona future

Luis Enrique Barcelona Champions League Final

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Luis Enrique refused to discuss his future at Barcelona after leading the club to an historic treble following the 3-1 Champions League final win against Juventus in Berlin on Saturday night.

The 45-year-old emulated Pep Guardiola’s success in the 2008-09 campaign by guiding the club to La Liga and Copa del Rey success domestically before securing the title of European champions.

Ivan Rakitic put Barca ahead in the fourth minute against Juve, but the Italian champions, who were also chasing a treble, came back to level via former Real Madrid star Alvaro Morata 10 minutes into the second half.

Luiz Suarez put Barca back in front and Neymar’s goal in the seventh minute in stoppage time put the icing on the cake.

This success appeared to be a million miles away earlier in the season when Enrique came in for some criticism from the Spanish media following reports of a fall-out with star player Lionel Messi.

But despite the massive turnaround in fortunes, Enrique would not commit his future to staying at the Camp Nou this summer.

“The time will come for decisions to be made,” he said.

“At this point, we will celebrate. It has been a difficult year. I am very satisfied and very happy with the work we have done together with all of our staff.

“I am so happy at the moment. You can’t ask me to think about the media and the people who have criticised me. I have zero interest in that.

“I don’t care what the press say about me. It’s easy to be critical and to criticise. Work has to be assessed sometimes on the basis of results.”

Enrique added: “I have had no doubts as to my work, the work of the players and anyone in the first team of Barcelona. Or the fans either.

“This is our 60th match. We have lost six and drawn four and these figures show this is one of the best seasons of a great club like Barcelona.

“The best club in Europe is Barcelona. You can see this from the trophies we have won. We want to keep this going.”

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