Her name was Xana. She was the daughter of Luis Enrique. She died of bone cancer in nine years old on August 29, 2019, and Enrique will tell you that wherever he goes. In mind, if not in body.
They are a family in Paris Saint-Germain and it is difficult to hate the success they have finally found outside their domestic rule in France.
Enrique is a huge reason for this, with the Parisians who want to beat Chelsea tomorrow, so that they can say that they rule both the world and Europe.
When PSG won the Champions League by beating Inter Milan 5-0 in May, their supporters created a tifo, huge in size and sentimentality. The depicted Xana with their flag planted in the middle circle, after she had performed that action when Enrique won the same trophy in 2015 with Barcelona – only a little girl who has fun with her father one evening of Pure Extase.
It was enough to take you to tears, that Tifo. Similarly, Enrique turned into a T-shirt that paid tribute to his daughter. Empathy filled households around the world while we watched the new European champions in their youthful sparkle.
Here in New York, in the 9/11 Museum, they have an exhibition with art made by children who express their grief as a form of therapy for the loved ones lost on that disastrous day. It contained a hat of Paper-Mache Fireman, and for whatever reason it was that item that brought me to tears while I considered a month from my son, Ezra, in the cover of this competition.
But then you remember: Enrique is not so happy. He will not fly home and do the daycare center run on Tuesday once the World Cup is completed.
PSG's manager, 55, bears his grief – literally, after that Champions League final – and how he has called on the strength to discuss his own daughter with the media, we don't know. The courage he has to speak about the inheritance left by Xana Verbijsts the Spirit. He even states that he has 'happiness' because he spent nine magical years with someone who is so special.
“Good luck,” he said in a TV interview that went viral. “But your daughter died at nine?” the interviewer answered. '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 could not keep photos of Xana until I got home and I asked her:' Why are there no pictures of Xana, Mama? “I can't do it, I can't,” she said. “Mom, you have to set up photos of Xana. She lives. She is not here in the physical sense. But in the spiritual sense she is.” Because we talk about her every day, we laugh. Because I think Xana still sees us. '
Chelsea could have had Enrique for himself. In April 2023 he was in London to be interviewed by the blues after firing Graham Potter. The Spaniard had had English lessons awaiting an opportunity to manage in the Premier League.
But Enrique, who had won the Treble with Barcelona in 2015, was only one member of the seven -member shortlist of Chelsea, who was assumed to have julan Nagelsmann, Ruben Amorim, Oliver Glasner, Luciano Spalletti, Roberto de Zerbi and Mauricio Pochettino, who received the work.
Instead, PSG hired Enrique, and the similarities between them and Chelsea are clear. These are two of the youngest sides in Europe, each of which trying to build a team to dominate the next decade.
PSG is much further in the line in that respect, after they have won the Champions League. Chelsea won the conference league of this season, on the other hand, but is back among the big boys after being fourth in the Premier League.
What will be. Chelsea is happy with Maresca as their head coach, in the conviction that he has had the most productive season as possible. He brought them to the Champions League. He won the Conference League. And he brought them to this club World Cup final 64th match of the 2024-25 season that will be held at the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey for President Trump.
Few give Chelsea a lot of chance tomorrow to overcome PSG, who dismantled Real Madrid 4-0 in the semi-final, but defender Levi Colwill said yesterday: “Real Madrid is very different from us. They don't press us or play like us. PSG cannot expect us to give them the same game.
'You have to respect how they press, how they play, but we are not going to change our whole way to play them. We have our plan, our identity that we will adhere 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 so. '
But if it is Enrique that lifts the club World Cup trophy, it will not be heavy. Xana will help him to lift it.