Old friends in Barcelona, ​​enemies on the benches

Today Luis Enrique and Frank de Boer will be rivals, something that they would never have thought between 1999 and 2003. In the four and a half seasons that the Dutch defender played with the Barcelona shirt, he coincided with Luis Enrique as a teammate. There were 121 games defending the same shield and that served them to, in 1999, be league champions in one of the most convulsive stages in the history of the Barça club.

They both became coaches ten years later and both were successful. They already met once, in 2014, when Ajax and Barcelona met in the group stage of the Champions League. Luis Enrique's dominance was considerable, with a 5-1 overall in favor, and both praised each other. “Luis and I had an excellent relationship, both on the field and off it”he said at the time. “He was the second captain of the team and had a winner and fighter mentality. He was an exemplary professional “, answered the Spanish.

A year and a half later In the summer of 2015, the continuity of Luis Enrique on the Camp Nou bench was questioned and the name of Frank de Boer jumped in the media. Old friends with parallel paths.