Latest news with #Xana
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
PSG fuelled by Enrique's refusal to run from tragedy: Manager of French champions lost his daughter in 2019 but will use her memory to inspire him against Chelsea, writes KIERAN GILL
Her name was Xana. She was Luis Enrique's daughter. She died on August 29, 2019, of bone cancer at nine years old, and Enrique will tell you that wherever he goes, she goes, too. In spirit if not in body. They are a family at Paris Saint-Germain and it is hard to resent the success they have finally found beyond their domestic domination in France. Enrique is an enormous reason for that, with the Parisians intent on beating Chelsea tomorrow so they can say they rule the world as well as Europe. When PSG won the Champions League by defeating Inter Milan 5-0 in May, their supporters created a tifo, huge in size as well as sentimentality. It depicted Xana with their flag being planted in the centre circle, after she had performed that very act when Enrique won the same trophy in 2015 with Barcelona — just a little girl having fun with her father on an evening of pure ecstasy. It was enough to move you to tears, that tifo. Likewise, Enrique changed into a T-shirt which paid tribute to his daughter. Empathy filled households around the world as we watched the new European champions bask in their youthful brilliance. Here in New York, at the 9/11 Museum, they have an exhibition displaying art created by children expressing their grief as a form of therapy for the loved ones lost on that disastrous day. It included a papier-mache fireman's hat, and for whatever reason it was that item which moved me to tears while considering a month spent away from my son, Ezra, in covering this competition. But then you remember: Enrique is not so fortunate. He will not get to fly home and do the nursery run on Tuesday once the Club World Cup has concluded. PSG's manager, 55, wears his grief — literally, after that Champions League final — and how he has summoned the strength to discuss his own daughter with the media, we do not know. The courage he has to speak on the legacy left behind by Xana boggles the mind. He even insists he is 'lucky' because he spent nine magical years with someone so special. 'Very lucky,' he said in a TV interview which went viral. 'But your daughter passed away at nine?' replied the interviewer. 'Well, my daughter came to live with us for nine wonderful years. We have thousands of memories of her, photos, videos, incredible things. 'My mother couldn't keep photos of Xana, until I arrived home and I asked her, 'Why aren't there any photos of Xana, mum?' 'I can't, I can't,' she said. 'Mum, you have to put up photos of Xana. She's alive. In the physical sense, she is not here. But in a spiritual sense, she is.' Because every day we talk about her, we laugh, we remember. Because I think Xana still sees us.' Chelsea could have had Enrique for themselves. In April 2023, he was in London to be interviewed by the Blues after the sacking of Graham Potter. The Spaniard had been having English lessons while waiting for an opportunity to manage in the Premier League. But Enrique, who had won the Treble with Barcelona in 2015, was only one member of Chelsea's seven-man shortlist, believed to include Julian Nagelsmann, Ruben Amorim, Oliver Glasner, Luciano Spalletti, Roberto De Zerbi and Mauricio Pochettino, who ultimately got the job. PSG hired Enrique instead, and the similarities between them and Chelsea are obvious. They are two of Europe's youngest sides, each trying to build a team to dominate the next decade. PSG are much further down the line in that regard, having won the Champions League. Chelsea won this season's Conference League by contrast, but are back among the big boys after finishing fourth in the Premier League. What will be, will be. Chelsea are happy with Maresca as their head coach, believing he has had as productive a season as possible. He got them into the Champions League. He won the Conference League. And he has taken them to this Club World Cup final — their 64th game of the 2024-25 season — which will be held at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey in front of President Trump. Few give Chelsea much chance tomorrow of overcoming PSG, who dismantled Real Madrid 4-0 in the semi-finals, but defender Levi Colwill said yesterday: 'Real Madrid are very different from us. They don't press like us or play like us. PSG can't expect us to give them the same game. 'You have to respect how they press, how they play, but we're not going to change our whole way to play them. We've got our plan, our identity which we're going to stick to through the gaffer. That's when we play our best football so let's stick to it. Most people around the world would expect PSG to win but we don't think that.' But if it is Enrique who lifts the Club World Cup trophy, it will not be heavy. Xana will be there helping him lift it up.
Daily Mail
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
PSG are no fairy story but a step towards the death of football - it's time to call out their owners' sportswashing and the brutality it hides: OLIVER HOLT
I could only see one story on Saturday night as I watched the scenes from Munich unfolding on my television screen. As Paris Saint-Germain annihilated Inter Milan in the final at the Allianz Arena, all I could think of was Luis Enrique and a life in which loss and victory were so inextricably intertwined. The images that flooded the mind were not of Desire Doue's goals or the brilliance of Ousmane Dembele but of a moment a decade ago when the PSG coach's daughter, Xana, carried a Barcelona flag around the pitch at the Olympiastadion in Berlin after Barca had won the Champions League and her dad planted it in the centre circle for her.
Qatar Tribune
02-06-2025
- Sport
- Qatar Tribune
Enrique's late daughter remembered
Agencies Paris Paris Saint-Germain fans unveiled a huge banner honouring coach Luis Enrique's late daughter Xana after the French club won their first Champions League on Saturday following years of failure. After his side thrashed Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich, the Spaniard also switched t-shirts to carry a reference to his daughter, who died of bone cancer in 2019 aged 9. 'Xana is always with us, we always think of her,' he told reporters. She had witnessed her father lift European club football's top prize as part of a treble while he was Barcelona coach in 2015, but he has managed the feat again after a painful period which included having to step down from the Spain job before her death. A row over his return to the Spain role and subsequent exit after a disappointing 2022 World Cup, only for the side to go on and win Euro 2024, had threatened Enrique's legacy. But he has moulded a real team since taking over in 2023 at PSG, eschewing their previous obsession with big names. His know-how has delivered in spectacular style with a record-winning margin for a Champions League final. 'No one expected this. We pressed so well, it's amazing what we managed. We are very happy, we had this ambition and goal,' he added. Club president Nasser Al Khelaifi, part of the Qatari group who took over the club in 2011 when they had won just two French league titles, was thrown into the air by the players after they lifted the trophy. They now have a record 13 Ligue 1 titles, but the big aim was the Champions League, which looked further away than ever when Lionel Messi came and then left after the unhappiest period of his career from 2021-23. Al Khelaifi, having also seen Neymar and Kylian Mbappe walk away, changed strategy by investing in younger prospects and wily professionals. It has paid off handsomely with a first ever French treble.
The Guardian
01-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Luis Enrique secures status as one of the all-time greats with PSG triumph
At what point did Luis Enrique know it was going to work out, that his Paris Saint‑Germain team would beat Inter at the Allianz Arena to win the club's first Champions League title? The manager had certainly cut a cool and confident figure when he emerged on to the pitch about 90 minutes before kick-off for a quick temperature check with his coaches. The PSG ultras were already behind one of the goals, bobbing up and down en masse. They would be a forceful presence throughout. Luis Enrique was aware that an omen was on his side. Every time Munich had hosted a final in Europe's elite competition, a new champion had emerged. Nottingham Forest, 1979. Marseille, 1993. Borussia Dortmund, 1997. And Chelsea, 2012. Inter had arrived as three-time winners. Luis Enrique is a spiritual person, so maybe that fed into things. What absolutely did was the shining light he had in the sky. 'You will be the star that guides our family,' he wrote in tribute to his daughter Xana in 2019 after she died from bone cancer at the age of nine. Luis Enrique carries more than the unimaginable pain. He feels enriched by the time he was able to spend with her. When the game got under way, everything quickly felt just right for PSG. Luis Enrique had declared his side knew 'how to unpick teams like Inter, how to get that tight-knit defence to unravel'. He believed in his approach, how his players would pass and move, especially the bit about the movement – the positional fluidity, the unusual overloads, the aggression in the press, as well. A 2-0 lead after 20 minutes was fortifying. The way Luis Enrique would tell it, even at 3-0 midway through the second half he wanted a fourth because the game 'could still open up' for Inter. So Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's goal for 4-0 on 73 minutes was probably the moment for the Spanish coach, although he seemed to really let it all out when Senny Mayulu made it five just before the end. The 19-year-old substitute, who had been on for only two minutes, was giddy with joy; disbelief even. For Luis Enrique, it was an example of his Midas touch on the night but also a symbol of something wider in terms of what he has built. An unheralded youngster ought not to be able to do this in club football's biggest game. It is gloriously possible within Luis Enrique's collective. Something felt crystal clear as the PSG captain, Marquinhos, emerged through the golden confetti – detonated a little early – to hoist the trophy; Luis Enrique must now be considered among the all-time greats of his profession. For him, the glory of Munich added up to a second 'classic' treble of his career – league, Champions League, principle domestic cup – having achieved the feat at Barcelona in 2014-15. Only one other manager has done this: his former Barcelona and Spain teammate Pep Guardiola, who pulled it off with Barcelona in 2008‑09 and Manchester City in 2022-23. But it has been as much about how Luis Enrique has succeeded at PSG. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion It has sometimes been possible to detect a bit of sniffiness about his exploits at Barcelona. You know, he inherited Lionel Messi and Neymar, with Luis Suárez added for him. Sergio Busquets, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi were already there, too. It has been different at PSG. With the help of Luís Campos, the recruitment chief, Luis Enrique has created a team – and one in the truest sense. Willian Pacho, João Neves and Désiré Doué were brought in last summer, with Kvaratskhelia, the final piece of the puzzle, joining in January. PSG have spent heavily; it was £200m on that quartet alone. Everything continues to stem from the wealth of the club's Qatari owners. Yet Luis Enrique has proved his genius by assembling a largely unstarry group who play for the badge rather than themselves; a break, frankly, from previous PSG vintages. And one that is capable of hitting such beautifully sweet high notes, which has a defined and likable identity. Ousmane Dembélé, who signed in the summer of 2023, which was when Luis Enrique arrived, has scored 33 goals this season. He did not add to the tally against Inter, although he did contribute two assists and was his usual threat. But it was his work without the ball, especially the energy with which he led the press, that had Luis Enrique purring. 'Everyone is talking about the Ballon d'Or … I would give it to Dembélé just for his defensive work against Inter,' the manager said. 'He showed what he was made of. He was a leader, he was humble.' Luis Enrique had noted a few weeks back: 'The first year at a club is generally not perfect but in the second you grow more in terms of football and confidence.' He called it, he has felt it, the click coming in January when PSG stormed back from 2-0 down to win 4-2 against Guardiola's City at the Parc des Princes in the penultimate Champions League group phase game. Since then, they have ridden the wave past everybody, including Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal, all the way to the crowning moment against Inter. And when it was over, there was the tifo from the PSG ultras. It depicted Luis Enrique and Xana in PSG colours planting a flag in the turf, just as they had done with Barcelona after the 2015 Champions League final victory against Juventus. It was overwhelmingly emotional. Xana can be very proud of her dad.
Indian Express
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Loyalty magnet, fitness fiend and career resurrector – Luis Enrique conducts a football symphony at PSG
An enormous tifo depicting Luis Enrique and his daughter Xana plating a PSG flag on the pitch fluttered in the stands behind the goalposts where PSG fans revelled in their most glorious European night. The recreation of the same frame of the father and daughter, who died six years ago, from 2015, when Barcelona lifted the Champions League trophy in Berlin, broke the manager down, a man who was a firebrand in his playing days. It was a touching message that the manager's grief was theirs too. That he had won their love. Leading up to the final, he had dwelled emotionally on the tragedy, the dark days and the guiding light Xana had been for him. The passage humanised an intellectual tactician of his time, offering a glimpse of the man behind the manager, strong and fragile in equal measure, stern and soft in the same breath. It's the essence of Enrique, the player, manager and the person. A midfielder, nicknamed Lucho, who combined steel and style, he adapted to different roles various managers thrust on him, adopted to the diverse cultures of Barcelona and Real Madrid, vowed to kill the man who broke his nose, the Italian right back Mauro Tassotti in the 1994 World Cup, yet hugged and forgave him in their next meeting. His footballing ideals were forged in the Barcelona fire, but he questioned some of the untouchable dogmas when he returned as the club's manager. He had rumoured stand-offs with Lionel Messi even in the treble-winning year at Barcelona, yet the Argentine rates him among the two best managers he has worked with, the other being Pep Guardiola, Enrique's roommate for five years at the Catalan club. He was despised in Madrid for joining the bitter rivals, but on a free transfer, he had openly exhibited his love for Barcelona, yet when he became the manager of the national team, he showed little allegiance to his favourite club. In Munich on Saturday, he joined the old pal as the only two managers to have won the European trebles on two occasions. And with two different clubs. Their trajectory is similar. Both have been captains at the Camp Nou; both have coached the B team; both have managed the first team, with whom they both won a treble in their first season, and both gave two clubs owned by Middle East states their first taste of Champions League. Yet, the Barcelonas they managed were different, albeit differently enjoyable versions. Enrique did not fixate on possession as much as Guardiola did, embraced a more direct and vertical style. 'I have tried to look for things based on my players' individual talents to help us, and what is best for the team,' Enrique would say. In his vision for the team, he was not bothered by hurting the ego of celebrity footballers. When he joined Roma in 2011, he told the club icon Francesco Totti that he didn't figure in his scheme. At the Nou Camp, he dropped Xavi and Gerard Pique, the latter to improve his fitness. A fitness freak, who comes to work on his bike, he competes in the Marathon de Sables, a 155-mile race over six days in the Sahara desert, and takes his team to crushing sprints along the mountainous terrain of Asturias, near Gijon, the town he was raised in, during the preseason. A stickler for discipline, he imposes fines on players and drops the serial offenders that arrive late to training or meeting, insists on players saluting the supporters after the game and instructs his players, even if injured, to be present on the training ground before practice. He reads the game not through the numbers, but by his eyes. He once told Kylian Mbappe, who netted a hat-trick that game, that he could have 'played better'. He has repeatedly specified that he nursed no personal vendetta against players. 'I do not mark my territory, I am not a hunting dog,' he once fumed at a journalist who pestered him about dropping Xavi to the bench. Yet, his men are fiercely loyal to him. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia reflected on the manager's approach in an interview on the UEFA website: 'What struck me most about him was the kind of person he is and how he treats his players. When someone comes to you calmly and explains everything then the player tries even harder to understand and perform even better. He makes you feel, both on and off the pitch, that you have to give your all – for him, for the club, and for all the fans. He treats you with such respect and clarity. It's his humanity that made the biggest impression.' He has revitalised careers. Ousmane Dembele seemed a frustrated and forlorn figure when he joined PSG the year before. His 185 appearances had just produced 40 goals. In 90 games for PSG, he has struck 39 goals already. A clumsy finisher, few managers would have risked to experiment as a false nine, an intricate role in itself. Enrique did this to spectacular effect. It succeeded not only because Dembele was talented enough to adjust and he did have an untapped goal-scoring eye, but also because Enrique tuned the rest of his troupe to synchronise their movements in accordance with the Frenchman's. Dembele the false nine worked because Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue worked too. His is such a wondrously assembled and grooved side that it is difficult to pinpoint who is his best player and who is not. He has let the best qualities of everyone shine. The club's owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi concurred after the triumph: 'This season, the star is the team. If you ask me who is the best player today, I don't know — all of them.' Perhaps, there is just one star in this team. He goes by the name Luis Enrique.
