Champions League final: Coach Enrique's personal ode to late daughter

The football god, if there is one, was in a mood for wish fulfilment at the Allianz Arena in Munich on the night of Saturday, 31 May. If the dapper Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the Qatari owner of Paris St Germain, was overjoyed that his dream project has finally succeeded in ruling over Europe after a long wait, it was also about a dad reliving a personal moment of triumph in memory of his late nine-year-old daughter.

Yes, no prizes for guessing that one is referring to the heart-rending story of Luis Enrique, the battle-scarred Spanish coach of PSG and his late daughter Xana. It was in 2019 that Xana lost her battle with bone cancer which forced Enrique, a compatriot of Pep Guardiola at Barcelona and the Spanish midfield, quit his role as Spanish coach to cope with the shattering personal tragedy.

The scrawny figure of Enrique (55), who was his usual animated and passionate self during a one-sided final against Inter Milan as his team went on a goal rush, took a pause during the team’s wild celebrations. Slipping on a black specially designed T-shirt, the PSG coach paid tribute to Xana with an illustration showing the two of them holding a PSG flag together, a throwback to the famous photo of Xana planting a giant Barca flag on the pitch back in 2015 when he first lifted the Champions League trophy as Barcelona’s coach.

Months before this year’s final in January, Enrique revealed his plan to recreate that unforgettable flag-planting moment with his daughter, this time celebrating with the PSG flag. ‘’I have an amazing photo of her planting a Barcelona flag into the turf,’’ he had said. ‘’I want to be able to do the same with a PSG flag. My daughter won’t be there in the physical sense, but she will be there spiritually and that’s very important to me,’’ he added.

The iconic Eiffel Tower had dressed up in PSG colours on the weekend night while Parisians will surely party hard as soon as the team touches down in the capital. For all the exalted status that France enjoys in international football, it’s been 32 years since a French club: Marseille had lifted the Uefa Champions League trophy under the captaincy of Didier Deschamps in 1993. The French are known to not easily embrace outsiders as their own, but the combative personality that Enrique – with whom PSG completed a treble - has made his way in their hearts.  

Otherwise, how would one justify the giant tifo surfacing at the venue after the final whistle to honour Xana’s memory? The world has known few sporting celebrities like a Michael Ballack or Mike Tyson losing their children at an young age while someone like celebrated singer Eric Clapton expressed his loss of four-year-old son Connor with his unforgettable number Tears in Heaven. The 2025 Champions League final will be now be remembered for it's celebration of a life gone too soon – affirming one’s faith in the healing power of sport.

The journey of Enrique’s career as a coach has been deeply marked by this personal loss. Shortly after taking charge of Spain’s national team in 2019, he stepped down to focus on his family during Xana’s illness. While he returned to the role later that year, he left again in 2022 after Spain’s World Cup exit.

Now at PSG, Enrique has led a revamped squad — without stars like Kylian Mbappe, who moved to Real Madrid — to European glory. Some heavy investment in previous years on big names such as Lionel Messi, Neymar and Sergio Ramos failed them to yield the Champions League trophy till the Spaniard brought in a new work ethic – with a bunch of future superstars in it’s wake!