After his four-year tenure as manager of the national team ended last week with their World Cup exit, Luis Enrique, the former Spain coach, said that he was ready for a new challenge and hoped to continue his coaching career at the club level.

Spain’s under-21 manager Luis de la Fuente was selected as Luis Enrique’s replacement after the country’s loss to Morocco on penalties in the round of 16 on Thursday.

“I want to coach, I see myself wanting to take on a club and be able to develop with greater finesse and precision what I have not been able to do in the national side,” Luis Enrique said in a Twitch interview with internet celebrity Ibai Llanos.

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“(But) I will probably wait for next season. This morning I was told I’ve been signed up for a mountain bike race that I’m going to do with my brother.”

Luis Enrique stated that after Spain was ousted on penalties by eventual champions Italy in the semifinals of Euro 2020, which was contested in 2021 because to the Covid epidemic, he was given the opportunity to extend his contract with Spain, but he declined.

“I said that the best thing to do was to finish the World Cup (first),” he said.

“I think it makes more sense. (Otherwise) they renew you before a big event, as a reinforcement, but if it goes wrong they will have to compensate you.

“Here they simply (needed to) tell me that I was not going to renew and the contract is over.

“I thought I was going to have to make a decision (about my future) but I didn’t even need to”.

It was the first time in his management career that his contract will not be extended, the 52-year-old former Barcelona player and coach stated.

“I prefer it that way,” Luis Enrique said.

“If there is no more trust and the thought that you are not the right person then I am happy to move on.”