From scaffold towers and electric scooters at training, to taking on Francesco Totti and rejecting Sergio Ramos, Spain coach Luis Enrique has always done things his way.
He failed at Roma, won the treble at Barcelona, and now has Spain one match from the final of the Euros. Managing club and country are different challenges; if they win it, he will have done the Champions League-Euros double.
He has peppered these finals with 'Luis-Enriquisms', things only the Spain coach would say. After Sergio Busquets tested positive for Covid, he was asked if he regretted picking a 24-man squad when he was allowed to pick 26.
National team manager Luis Enrique (pictured) is the idiosyncratic and 'crazy King of Spain'
'No, now I wish I had picked just 23,' he said. 'It would have been one less in danger of catching Covid.'
Asked how keeper Unai Simon was after his gaffe against Croatia, he said: 'As they say in tennis, it's best to have the memory of a fish, all that matters is the next shot.' And when Spain anguished over two draws in their group, he said: 'We are like a bottle of fizz when the cork is about to pop.' Spain won their next two, scoring 10.
After beating Switzerland in the quarter-finals, the champagne really did flow in the dressing room with his young squad dancing to a reggae-flamenco fusion song they have adopted as an anthem.
Whizzing around the Madrid training base on an electric scooter, the 51-year-old doesn't discourage a little euphoria, as long as, like the tennis player's last shot, it's quickly forgotten.
