He must embody the renewal of PSG next season. Luis Campos was appointed as the club’s sports adviser on Friday, June 3, in place of Leonardo, dismissed two years after his return to the capital. A recruiter with a worldwide reputation, the Portuguese has stamped his seal on the last two titles that have escaped Paris (Monaco 2017 and Lille 2021).
Rare in the media, the 57-year-old technician has been a physical trainer, coach, recruiter and sports director. With a decade of experience in this position, he is the key element of the Parisian renaissance wanted by Kylian Mbappé before extending.
Coach, the wrong road
Before becoming a recognized sports director, Luis Campos was a coach. Trained as a physical trainer, he was inducted, at only 27, as the main coach of Uniao Leiria, which then played in the Portuguese second division. A four-year lease before chaining eleven clubs in ten seasons. The results did not follow, the young “Professor” threw in the towel in 2005, and left the world of football for a while.
A seven-year hiatus ensued before he began a second life. If he can’t win his teams on the bench, it will be behind the scenes that he will act. Called in 2012 by José Mourinho, whom he knew in the past and who has since become Real Madrid coach, he is in charge of supervising the opposing teams. The beginnings of his new career.
An outstanding recruiter
Bernardo Silva, Fabinho, James Rodriguez, Pepe or more recently Tiago Djalo and Domagoj Bradaric. All have in common to have been spotted by Luis Campos. A talent scout, the Portuguese has kept from his years on the bench a network of ultra-efficient recruiters around the world. Hundreds of players are supervised in real time each year by its teams and everything is compiled in software called Scouting System Pro. A secret weapon that he was able to put at the service of the various clubs where he officiated. Polyglot (he speaks Portuguese, hasGerman, espanish, Italian and fFrench), the man has no limits when it comes to finding the missing player in his collection.
/2022/05/22/phpbtCyZa.jpg)
First in Monaco then in Lille, it is also on the financial level that Luis Campos marks his difference. On the Monegasque Rock, Fabinho and Bernardo Silva, bought eight and fifteen million euros, had each been sold for nearly 50 million euros while Atlético de Madrid had to pay just over 70 million euros for Thomas Lemar, recruited for four. In Lille, it was Nicolas Pépé who broke the Arsenal bank by leaving for 80 million euros.
France, land of welcome
If the small village of Fao, north of Porto, will always be favored by the soon to be sixty-something, Luis Campos seems to like France. After Monaco and Lille, the Portuguese technician will therefore know with PSG a third club in the French championship. The one who started as an adviser on the Rock before climbing the ladder will enter a new dimension with PSG, as a sports adviser.
/2022/05/22/phptqxr38.jpg)
The title of Monaco in 2017, like that of Lille in 2021, are the fruit of his work. If he left the year before each of these two titles, he shaped the framework of the two clubs to allow them to compete with PSG. He also knows how to bet on young talents (Bernardo Silva or Fabinho in Monaco, Jonathan David in Lille) as well as surround himself with old hands (Radamel Falcao at ASM – , José Fonte at Losc). Waited a time on the Marseille side, it will now be with the great rival that he will unearth his treasures.
Mbappé-Campos, the connection
When Kylian Mbappé left Monaco for PSG in 2017, there was no one to hold him back. Luis Campos had left the previous season, just two years after being seduced by the youngster from Bondy, as he explained to Sky Sports in 2019. “The day I arrived in Monaco, Kylian wasn’t happy at the club. I remember meeting his family. They said he wouldn’t stay. He wasn’t playing, we didn’t understand. watched him play for ten minutes, I immediately thought of the following: ‘He is an extraordinary player, he must stay at the club. I put him in the B team and after two months he made the difference.”
Six years have passed but PSG have understood this well. To build your future around Mbappé, you have to bet on your past. Luis Campos is one of them and while relations between the French international and his predecessor Leonardo were limited, the connection between the Portuguese technician and the 23-year-old is already proven.