Spain manager Luis Enrique’s World Cup Twitch lessons
Across Spain, hundreds of thousands of people have been tuning in to watch national team coach Luis Enrique give his daily briefing each night. Though he retired as a player in 2004, he has become one of the stars of the World Cup in his homeland with his Twitch streams direct to supporters.
Luis Enrique has never been someone to give many interviews and his frosty relationship with journalists has often led to negative headlines, but his approach in Qatar has changed the narrative around him. Through these chats, fans have a much clearer sense of who he is and what he is like, earning him the nickname Luis Padrique, or “Daddy Cool.” (More on that later.)
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Every night at 8 p.m. local time — except on match days — he sits in a gaming chair wearing a headset and tackles the questions in the chat. He does not limit himself to football, either: everything from complicated family relations and staying in shape at 52 years old to eggs, nicknames, geography and intercourse during international tournaments has come up. Over 700,000 users subscribe to his Twitch account and 400,000-plus follow his new World Cup Instagram account, where he has burnished his divisive reputation with a string of shirtless selfies.
Each stream has helped draw an image of the World Cup’s coolest coach and as Spain head into Thursday’s game against Japan, where La Roja need just a point to book their place in the last 16, here are the biggest things we’ve learned about Luis Enrique so far.
Talking tactics is fine, but don’t expect a starting XI reveal
Most coaches are reluctant to go into detail when discussing tactics given an unwillingness to reveal too much to potential opponents, even more so in the high-stakes environment of a World Cup. But not Luis Enrique. With an hourlong stream to fill each night, he’s happy to go in-depth on how he wants Spain to play. He has been keen to dispel some misconceptions about the team’s identity, too.
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