Sabatini spoke to AS in a wide-ranging interview, recounting how the approach for the then-Barcelona B manager came via legendary Italian agent Dario Canovi and how subsequent visits from his scouting team convinced him this was no ordinary appointment.
"Dario Canovi came to Rome to speak with me about him. He told me that Luis Enrique wanted to try his luck abroad, to leave the Barça B. He underlined that emotionally he was very connected to Barcelona, but that Italy attracted him for his start in top-level football."
Sabatini sent scouts to watch the Barcelona B side — he named Frederic Massara and Pasquale Sensibile — and they returned certain.
"They came back surprised and excited by how those kids played."
Before committing, Sabatini dug into the thinking of the man himself by commissioning a full dossier of his press conference and interview transcripts.
"I read everything, and I was struck by one thing: 'The important thing is not the goal, but the journey to get there.' It can sound like a cliché used superficially by many. But it was not normal in the Italian football I had lived. It created curiosity in me about this way of thinking."
He then flew to Barcelona himself, with his right-hand man Franco Baldini already in place, and met Luis Enrique at his home.
"I didn't doubt. The expectations were confirmed. I went back to Rome and called him offering a formal contract. He accepted, fortunately. In a few days he arrived in the capital. I am proud because it was a revolutionary choice. In Italy, everyone remembered him as a player — but nobody had thought of him as a coach for Serie A. It was something unique in the Calcio. Unclassifiable."
Luis Enrique's one season at AS Roma — 2011/12 — produced a seventh-place finish and no European football, but Sabatini rejected the idea that the appointment failed.
"What he brought was a new, revolutionary working culture. Do you know something? The most important players — De Rossi, for example — would come to me and say: 'There are so many concepts he develops in training that I feel like I have never played football before.' And Daniele was a world champion, not just anyone. He felt he was learning to play, and he was delighted, in love with that football."
The breaking point was Luis Enrique's decision to leave Francesco Totti on the bench for a Europa League qualifying match, replacing him with striker Stefano Okaka.
"In Rome it works like this — whoever touches Totti commits a capital sin. He is dead. Totti is, even today, an eternal idol. Luis Enrique knew perfectly that calling him into question meant digging his own grave. Despite everything, he did not want to betray his ideals for a personal or human interest. He is a man of brutal coherence. Something unique."
When the season ended, Sabatini wanted to renew Luis Enrique's contract. He refused — reportedly offended by insults directed at his family by supporters near his home.
"He was affronted. We tried to keep him for more time, but he said no. He was perhaps very tired and burned. He needed a year to rest before going to Celta. What happened he never forgave."
Sabatini's final words on the man who now leads PSG were those of a sporting director who knows he spotted something before the world caught up.
"He is a man of extraordinary coherence, something indispensable to being a great coach. I love him. It is a pride for me, everything he is achieving."