The handsome man standing next to Luis Enrique, hugging Neves his name is Luis Campos, and he’s the sporting director of Paris Saint-Germain. But why is he the hero of this story? Let me tell you 👇
When Campos turned 27, he decided to enter the world of coaching. He was a young and ambitious coach, but he failed—he got relegated with every Portuguese club he coached. He was relegated 3 times with 3 different clubs, to the point that fans were mocking him!
So Campos decided to quit coaching altogether and did something brilliant. He founded a company called Training to Play, which provided tactical tools and equipment. At the time, he created a tactical board for José Mourinho and from that moment, the two became friends!
The great thing about Campos is that he studied, learned, and mastered many roles in football. He’s a coach, performance analyst, sporting director—and has an exceptional talent for discovering players!
That’s why Mourinho brought Campos with him to Real Madrid in 2010 as a performance analyst and talent scout. Campos amazed everyone at Madrid with the level of detail in his work!
Campos used to travel non-stop to scout talents personally, even living out of hotels. Why go through all that?
Because he didn’t just analyze talent—he dove into players’ lives. He’d observe how a player behaved during warm-ups (whether starting or benched), how they acted during matches, and how they reacted if they were benched while their team was losing. He focused on every tiny detail!
In 2013, Campos joined Monaco as a sporting director and just imagine, he was the one who brought in all these names:
James RodrĂguez
Radamel Falcao
Kylian Mbappé
Bernardo Silva
Fabinho
Anthony Martial
Tiemoué Bakayoko
All of them came for small fees—€8M, €12M—and were later sold for €40M or €50M. A brilliant economic success!
The result? Monaco broke PSG’s dominance and won the French league in 2017, and reached the Champions League semi-finals the same year!
Then in 2017, Campos moved to Lille as sporting director—and guess who he brought in there:
Nicolas Pépé: bought for €9M, sold for €80M
Victor Osimhen: bought for €22M, sold for €70M
Rafael LeĂŁo
Anwar El Ghazi
Jonathan Bamba
Zeki Çelik
Renato Sanches
The result? Lille broke PSG’s dominance again and won the French league in 2021. They made about €43M in profit from player sales!
That’s why even Real Madrid wanted Campos as their sporting director. But PSG managed to land him in the end so he could bring in all these talents:
Vitinha
Nuno Mendes
JoĂŁo Neves
Fabián Ruiz
Pacho
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
Désiré Doué
And for the first time, Nasser Al-Khelaifi stopped interfering in sporting decisions and let Campos work alongside Luis Enrique. Together, they produced the best football team in the world not through Galáctico signings or ego-driven stars—but through team chemistry and talent.
They won the first treble in the club’s history: the League, the Cup, and the UEFA Champions League.
Luis Campos, football’s ultimate project mastermind ❤️