Luis Enrique has confirmed that he is seeking a return to club management after leaving his role with the Spanish national team following their shock exit from the World Cup.
Enrique had been in charge of the Spanish national team for four years prior to his dismissal last week. The former Barcelona chief was not offered a new deal following Spain's poor performance in Qatar, where they were stunned by Morocco in the Round of 16.
Spain have since announced that Under-21 boss Luis de la Fuente will replace Enrique at the helm - and Enrique already has an idea of what type of challenge he'd like to embark on next.
Enrique had a hugely successful three-year spell at Barcelona, where he won the Champions League and two LaLiga titles before stepping away from the Nou Camp back in 2017.
But after a taste of international management, Enrique - who has been linked with various high-profile jobs in the Premier League over the past 12 months - is ready to throw himself back into a domestic role.
“I see myself joining a club and developing a squad with greater finesse and precision than I had time to do with the National Team”, the 52-year-old said on a Twitch stream with Spanish celebrity Ibai Llanos. “This campaign is coming to an end and I will surely wait for next season. In the meantime, I have enlisted for a mountain bike race with my brother!”
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After revealing that he turned down the chance to extend his contract with the Spanish Football Federation after Euro 2020 last summer, Enrique went on to bemoan his sides performance against Morocco, who are set to face defending champions France in the semi-finals of the tournament after upsetting Portugal in the quarter-finals.
"The bad thing about these competitions is that in 90 or 120 [minutes] you can go to hell," he added. "We didn't have a good game against Morocco, but I get a positive reading from the World Cup and four years in the national team. I'm calm, I'm satisfied, I think we've managed to generate excitement, give players confidence, it's reassuring the fact that there were boys and girls in the hotels to see the players. As a coach, my job is to make decisions and I've done it."
He added: "We have been preparing very good players for four years and I feel that we have lost a very good opportunity and I feel very bad. From the first day I tried to convince the players that we had a chance. I thought we were very good except for a few minutes against Japan when we were overwhelmed and then the difficulties came against Morocco."
