Thursday, January 14, 2016

On Monday, Luis Enrique won the 2015 FIFA World Coach of the Year in Zürich, Switzerland.

In his first year as manager of FC Barcelona, Enrique won five trophies, including the 2015 FIFA Club World Cup. The other finalists were Pep Guardiola, a former Barcelona coach and current manager of the German giants Bayern Munich, and Argentine Jorge Sampaoli, the coach of Chile’s national football team.

The staff, the president, the board, the fans and our players. This is an incredible dream team that has pushed us forward.

Guardiola led Bayern to the Bundesliga title and under Sampoli, Chile won their first ever-Copa América, defeating Argentina 4–1 on penalties. Enrique won La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the UEFA Champions League — just the second time the club has won that treble — the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. Barcelona also defeated their arch-rivals Real Madrid 4–0 in November.

Barcelona technical secretary Robert Fernandez attended the ceremony and collected the award on behalf of Enrique, who did not attend the function. Fernandez said “It must have been a very difficult choice because the other candidates [are of] very, very high quality,”. He also added that Enrique wanted to share the award with all those people who “who have supported him in difficult times and good times. The staff, the president, the board, the fans and our players. This is an incredible dream team that has pushed us forward.”

Earlier in the ceremony, Jill Ellis, who coached the United States’s women’s football team to win the World Cup, was announced as the FIFA Football Women’s Coach of the year.