Luis Enrique is nowadays considered one of the best football managers, leading Paris Saint-Germain to the Champions League last year, possibly a second in a row this year, as well as multiple titles with FC Barcelona with a famous "hat-trick" of LaLiga, Champions League, and Copa del Rey in 2015. But the Spaniard regrets that his boyhood club, Sporting Gijón, never gave him a chance as a manager.
Sporting, Luis Enrique's home club from Gijón, Asturias, was were Luis Enrique first started his career as a player in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before joining Real Madrid and then Barcelona. When he became manager, Sporting passed on him and then joined FC Barcelona B team in 2008.
Speaking in an interview with Asturias' newspaper La Nueva España, he claimed that Sporting "lost a big chance" by not hiring him. "Sporting missed a golden opportunity by not giving me the job at the start. Now, even my father would bet on Luis Enrique as coach, of course, that's understandable", he said (via AS).
"The opportunity came when I was a nobody. A nobody in quotes, as a coach I was a nobody. That's what Barça did, giving me the reserve team."
Luis Enrique rules out returning to Sporting Gijón to end his managerial career
Luis Enrique, who also said that he doesn't want to become a "grumpy old man training" when asked about his long-term future as a coach, admitted that he doesn't see himself returning to Gijón because he has lived very little there, only in his first twenty years, and has seen other players and managers being kicked out. "If I go to Gijón and they'll kick me out, I think I'll throw myself off Santa Catalina Hill. I see it as unlikely. Besides, now I'm used to the highest level, which is where I feel most comfortable. I can't rule it out, but I don't see it as something feasible either."
Sporting Gijón has spent most of its history in second division, playing for the last time in first division in 2016/17. Their best success were nearly 50 years ago, when they finished second and third in LaLiga in 1979 and 1980.