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Here's looking back at the Luis Enrique era where FC Barcelona won 9 out of a possible 13 trophies in 3 seasons which included two La Ligas, three Copa del Rey's, one Champions League, a European Super Cup, a Spanish Super Cup and a Club World Cup.
Despite the lack of the League title and the Champions League in the final season, Enrique's time at the club would be fondly remembered because of his direct playing style and his willingness to take all the right risks at the right time.
What enabled Barcelona to win all these trophies were the signings made by Enrique during his term as manager of the Blaugrana.
Here are five signings made by Enrique that helped the Catalans win the impressive treble and successive league and cup trophies.
#5 Claudio Bravo
Joined in: 2014-15
Price: €12 million
Signed from: Real Sociedad
Games played: 75
Signed at Luis Enrique’s request, Claudio Bravo came from Real Sociedad with a reputation as a goalkeeper who was comfortable with the ball at his feet but was not able to particularly dominate his penalty area. But with Barcelona’s coaching staff helping him, the Chilean became a formidable force between the sticks.
He won the La Liga two years in a row as the club’s first-choice keeper in that competition before being sold to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City for a sizeable profit to allow his German teammate Marc-Andre ter Stegen to become the Barcelona No. 1.
Bravo made an approximate 2.27 saves per game in his Barcelona career while keeping 43 clean sheets in 75 matches.
#4 Ivan Rakitic
Joined in: 2014-15
Price: €18 million
Signed from: Sevilla
Games played: 208
Rakitic was Luis Enrique’s most-used player during the latter's time at the club. For those three years, Ivan Rakitic played an incredible number of games for Barcelona as a right midfielder.
He performed at such a high level that Barcelona minimized the suffering for benching Xavi as Rakitic became an important member of the squad. The Croatian even scored the opening goal in the 2015 Champions League Final in Berlin against Juventus.
Rakitic could have been ahead on the list if it were not for the change in tactics by Enrique during the end of his term where Rakitic had to play in an unfamiliar role where he would slot in even deeper on the right side of the pitch. Nevertheless, his contribution towards the team cannot be forgotten.
Rakitic has scored 29 goals with a passing accuracy upwards of 90% while creating loads chances for his teammates.
#3 Samuel Umtiti
Joined in: 2016-17
Price: €25 million
Signed from: Olympique Lyonnais
Games played: 80
Easily the best signing of the 2016-17 summer transfer window, Umtiti is the centre-back Barcelona had been waiting for since Carles Puyol's powers started waning in 2011. Powerful and fast, his positioning in the box and technique on the ball is on a different level altogether
The Blaugrana faithful can only hope that the former Lyon player maintains and further strengthens his pairing with Gerard Pique for a number of years to come.
The Frenchman has played a total of 32 games this season and managed to rake up 61 tackles and 57 interceptions.
#2 Luis Suarez
Joined in: 2014-15
Price: €81.72 million
Signed from: Liverpool FC
Games played: 192
Luis Suárez was signed from Liverpool for a gigantic fee after his prolific goalscoring season with The Reds. He was given a ban from all professional footballing after he bit Italian defender, Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup when he played for Uruguay.
The Barcelona hierarchy didn’t have much doubt in his abilities and signed him up without any hesitation. Suarez had to wait for nearly three months after the season started to make his debut, against Los Blancos at the Santiago Bernabeu. He provided an assist within the first 10 minutes of his Barca career, but the team ended up losing the game.
Suarez struggled to get a grip in his first few games but when he was moved to a central striking position in January 2015, things started to go his way. The fabled trio of Messi Suarez and Neymar was born and the MSN became the world's most feared attacking trident scoring a huge number of goals amongst them.
Suarez worked hard as he was the first line of defence and also helped in building up play like a true Barca player. He has scored 148 goals for the club while providing 82 assists, winning the Pichichi award in his second season.
#1 Marc-André ter Stegen
Joined in: 2014-15
Price: €12 million
Signed from: Borussia Mönchengladbach
Games played: 137
It had to be Ter Stegen at the number 1 spot on this list. He was Andoni Zubizarreta’s (Director of Football at Barcelona) choice as the goalkeeper for the first team, and wasn't the former Barca 'Dream Team' goalkeeper right about the young German from Borussia Mönchengladbach?
Ter Stegen was initially given the responsibility of guarding the sticks in the cup competitions only, while Bravo was the league goalkeeper.
As the first choice for the cup competitions, he won the Copa del Rey thrice in as many years and won the Champions League in his first outing, completing the famous second treble.
He has now become the club’s first choice in between the sticks, where he now shows not only his unbelievable ability with the ball at his feet but also some jaw-dropping reflexes while saving shots.
In possession, he dribbles the ball and precisely picks out the right pass making his distribution of the ball better than most creative midfielders. He has the opportunity to be the first choice keeper at the World Cup for his national side only if Manuel Neuer is not able to compete on the same wavelength after a long injury layoff.
While at Barca, Ter Stegen has kept 59 clean sheets in 137 appearances.
