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The German coach signs a contract until 30 June 2026
FC Barcelona and Hansi Flick have reached an agreement for the German to become men’s first team football coach until 30 June 2026. The new coach has signed a contract at the Club’s offices accompanied by FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta; first vice president responsible for the sporting area, Rafa Yuste and the Club’s sporting director, Anderson Luís de Souza, Deco.
A champion for coach
By bringing Hansi Flick as coach, FC Barcelona have chosen a man well known for his teams’ high pressing, intense and daring style of play which has brought him great success at club level and international level, winning pretty much all there is to win in the world of football.
It's our moment.
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 29, 2024
Flick is here. pic.twitter.com/ysb35a6l35
Born in Heidelberg, Germany in 1965, Flick started his coaching career back in 1996 as player-coach at FC Victoria Bammental. In 2000 he took over at Hoffenheim where he stayed for five seasons before moving to RB Salzburg to become part of the coaching staff under Giovanni Trapattoni and Lothar Matthäus.
Six years with Löw
In August 2006 Flick became assistant coach to Jürgen Löw at the German national team following the resignation of Jürgen Klinsmann. Löw and Flick led Germany through a rebuilding phase and then to the final of the European Championships in 2008.
In 2010 the team reached the World Cup semi-final, the same stage of the European Championships in 2012 before being crowned World Champions in 2014 in Brazil.
Six trophies
After the success in the tournament, Flick stepped down as assistant coach to the ‘Mannschaft’ and took a job as sporting director at the German Football Federation (DFB) before returning to Hoffenheim in 2017 as sporting director. In the summer of 2019 Flick arrived at Bayern Munich as assistant to Nico Kovac.
The Bavarian club went on to sack their Croatian coach after just months in the job and Flick was promoted to caretaker first team coach, a decision that was to change the course of Bayern’s history. After a good start, Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed Flick in the job until the end of the season. Flick recorded 22 wins in his first 25 games in charge, surpassing Josep Guardiola’s figures of 21 wins in his first 25 matches.
The season ended with the Munich club winning a historic treble which included a painful 8-2 defeat for Barça in the Champions League at the hands of Flick’s team. The German coach was awarded the UEFA Coach of the Year award.
Lewandowski lethal
After winning the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the Champions League, Bayern completed the set with victory in the German Super Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup, repeating the feat achieved by Pep Guardiola’s Barça in 2009.
Striker Robert Lewandowski played his part in the team’s success, averaging more than a goal per game under Flick. In the 2020/21 season Bayern retained the league title before the coach informed the club he would be leaving to take on the German national team.
After eight wins in his eight games in charge, Hansi Flick’s team lost to Japan in the 2022 Qatar World Cup and were knocked out of the tournament at the group stage. After more negative results, months later Flick was sacked as Germany coach.
Hansi Flick: Did you know?
German coach comes to Barça after making history at Bayern Munich
Hansi Flick is the new FC Barcelona coach. The third German to take charge of the side is one of just two European managers who can boast the sextuple of trophies in the same calendar year.
1- Hans-Dieter Flick was born on 24 February 1965 and will therefore turn 60 next year. He was born in Heidelberg, a city of 150,000 that lies some 340 km away from Munich, where he was both a player and coach.
2- He started out at local club SV Sandhausen and was snapped up by Bayern Munich at the age of 20. He went on to play over 100 games in the Bundesliga, winning four consecutive titles and also reaching the European Cup Final in 1987, where the Bavarians were beaten by FC Porto.
3- His first coach at Bayern was Udo Lattek, the same man who some years earlier had been in charge of Barça (1981-83). Lattek managed Bayern for two different periods (1969-1975 and 1983-1987) and would also coach Flick when they met again at FC Köln.
4- At Bayern, Flick played under another coach that served in La Liga, Jupp Heynckes (1987-90), and in Cologne he got to work with Erich Rutemöller (1990-91) and Jörg Berger (1992).
5- Injury meant he had to retire from active playing duty when he was just 28, having amassed 148 Bundesliga appearances from his time at Bayern Munich (1985-90) and Köln (1990-92).
6- Despite his playing career being cut short, at Bayern he got to be in the same dressing room as players of the ilk of Jean-Marie Pfaff, Lothar Matthäus, Dieter Hoeness, Klaus Augenthaler, Andreas Brehme and Jürgen Kohler, and his team-mates at Köln included Bodo Illgner and Pierre Littbarski.
7- As an international coach, he is best known for his role at the helm of the German team at the 2022 World Cup. However, he also assisted Joachim Löw from 2008 to 2014, when the team reached the Final of Euro 2008, the semifinal of the 2010 World Cup (losing both times to Spain) and the semis of Euro 2012 before winning the 2014 Would Cup thanks to that famous 7-1 demolition of hosts Brazil in the semis before beating Leo Messi’s Argentina in the final.
8- Technically, the first game of elite football that he ever managed was the 3-2 defeat of Portugal in the Euro 2008 quarter finals, when he stood in for the suspended Löw. Schweinsteiger, Klose and Ballack scored the goals that day.
9- Miroslav Klose, the highest goalscorer in World Cup history, would later serve as his assistant at Bayern Munich in the 2020/21 season.
10- Hansi Flick is best remembered for leading Bayern to the sextuple in 2020, matching Josep Guardiola’s achievement with Barça in 2009. Curiously, Guardiola would later go on to manage Bayern and now Flick is coming to Barça.