Winner of the 2025 Socrates Award, the Xana Foundation keeps the memory of Luis Enrique’s late daughter alive by supporting sick children and their families.

Her broad smile lights up the room, as if she had never left. Xana, the daughter of Luis Enrique and his wife Elena, who died six years ago from osteosarcoma (a type of bone cancer), inspired her loved ones to set up a foundation that helps sick children and their families.

Beneath a giant portrait of the little girl, who left us at the age of 9, her aunt Bela Cullell, director of the foundation, warmly welcomes us to their premises in Gavà Mar, south of Barcelona.

“We are very proud and happy to receive this award (the 2025 Socrates Prize, awarded in collaboration with the NGO Peace and Sport). It offers us a great platform to raise our profile,” says the Parisian manager’s sister-in-law.

Since early 2024, the Xana Foundation has been supporting and providing logistical, therapeutic, emotional and financial assistance to dozens of families with a child affected by a serious illness.

"We can provide them with assistance for housing or transport, as some parents are forced to stop working to be by their child’s side during this difficult ordeal. It is already very difficult to go through such an experience when you have the means, but it is even harder if that is not the case," she explains.

The importance of the Xana Foundation: Supporting families through grief

To date, the foundation has been able to help families across the Iberian Peninsula, Eastern Europe and even South America. Among its projects, it funds a paediatrician specialising in oncological acupuncture at the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona, one of Catalonia’s leading centres specialising in childhood illnesses. It also offers physiotherapy and art therapy sessions to help sick children alleviate their suffering.

“We have plans to open a holistic care home (which treats the patient holistically), named Casa de las Xanas, with around twenty rooms. Currently, there are no facilities in Spain capable of both treating and accommodating sick children and their families at the same time,” says Bela Cullell. The foundation stone could be laid next year on the outskirts of Barcelona.

"It’s our philosophy; Xana remains our greatest inspiration" – Luis Enrique

“We also try to support bereaved families when the story ends tragically, to help minimise the trauma this can cause,” continues the director. “It’s important not to abandon them, to be by their side to help them move forward,” adds Luis Enrique’s sister-in-law.

Luis Enrique’s greatest inspiration: “It’s still Xana”

In the week leading up to PSG’s Champions League victory over Inter Milan (5-0) in late May, the memory of Xana spurred on the Parisian manager, who in 2019 had to step aside for five months from his role as Spain’s national team coach.

"It’s about finding the positive in the negative," the Spanish manager said modestly on the eve of the UEFA Champions League final. "That’s our mindset; Xana remains our greatest inspiration," he added that day.

After the match, PSG fans unfurled an emotional tifo featuring the image of Luis Enrique and his daughter. For his part, the foundation’s team presented him with a shirt bearing his face, which he immediately donned for the photos and for posterity. Xana, of whom he speaks intimately and movingly in a documentary, continues to accompany Luis Enrique in his daily life.