Luis Enrique, Messi, and the Ultimate Chaos Before Winning the Champions League in 2015

One of the most remembered episodes of Leo Messi at Barcelona is something that almost nobody saw. In retrospect, it can be said that the incident nearly blew up the team that ultimately won Barcelona’s last Champions League. It was also the moment that foreshadowed their triumph in that European Cup. This happened on the morning of January 2, 2015, during a training match at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper. Messi was fouled, but Luis Enrique, then his coach, decided not to call it, and the Argentine got furious. The confrontation, of which no images remain, intensified. Several people had to intervene to calm them down; the number 10 left practice heading to the locker room, and several days of extreme tension ensued at the club.

Ten years later, with not a single ember left from that legendary fire, Luis Enrique and Messi reunite this Sunday in Atlanta in the round of 16 of the Club World Cup PSG-Inter Miami (18:00, Dazn). They, along with several other actors from that drama that nearly turned into a tragedy, are now involved with the delicate balance of that Barcelona. Besides the Argentine, four other starters from the 2015 Champions final in Berlin now play for the Florida team: Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba are still active, and Javier Mascherano sits on the bench as a coach.

Now there are nothing but praises and good words exchanged; but a decade ago, they fought a fierce battle over who led the Barcelona locker room, which they resolved by joining forces for the club’s last great triumph.

The start of the season found Messi sulking. Bartomeu had decided not to renew the contract of his friend, goalkeeper José Manuel Pinto, fired the equipment manager Txema Corbella, and removed Pepe Costa, a person trusted by the Argentine, from the team’s travels. And Luis Enrique had just arrived on the bench, proclaiming in his first press conference: “I am the leader of my team.”

Messi came back from his Christmas holidays in Rosario with this discontent, returning a couple of days later than the rest to that training session of the fire. Two days later, the Asturian coach left the number 10 on the bench at the beginning of the match against Real Sociedad at Anoeta, a game resolved by an own goal from Alba (1-0).

Luis Enrique’s decision fueled the Argentine’s anger, who did not show up for the next training. The ball kept rolling. The coach asked the club to sanction the player. Meanwhile, Iniesta and Busquets started efforts to mediate, and Xavi showed up at Messi’s home.

The flames did not die down until Luis Enrique opted for a face-to-face conversation. “If you listen to me, we will win,” he told the Argentine. Barcelona played a more vertical football that season than usual, dazzling with Neymar and Luis Suárez. And they won. A lot: League, Cup, and Champions, the last trophy that has entered Barcelona’s showcases.

Few things convince Messi as much as someone making him win; he does not forget those who made him angry. In 2021, Barcelona fell into the Champions group with City, where Rodolfo Borrell, then an assistant to Guardiola, was the only coach from La Masia who did not field Messi. “He said he was a futsal player, that he held the ball too much and dribbled a lot,” recounted Cristian Hernández, a teammate from back then. When Messi saw Borrell, they heard him say, “Stop everything, here comes the genius of football.” Almost two decades had passed.

He views Luis Enrique, who helped him win, very differently. Along with Guardiola, he considers him one of the best coaches he’s had: “Having them so frequently made me grow a lot in terms of football and the tactical wisdom they taught me,” he said in 2020. The coach also moved past the incident: “There was a moment of tension that I had to manage as a coach, but to this day I can only speak wonders of Messi,” he said in 2019.

Luis Suárez, very close to the Argentine during that 2015 episode, now at Inter Miami, recalled it similarly when he learned they would reunite: “Along with coach Tabárez, he was one of the most important trainers of my career, for what I learned.” So did Jordi Alba: “For me, he is the best. Not just as a coach—his management of the group is phenomenal.” Once, he calmed the greatest chaos of all time.