Hans Dieter Flick is the coach who placed Bayern Munich at the top of football in February 2021 after winning the six titles at stake in one fell swoop: Bundesliga, Cup, Champions League, German Super Cup, European Super Cup and the Club World Cup. A “sextet” that until then had only been achieved by Pep Guardiola’s FC Barcelona in 2009. No Barcelona fan has precisely forgotten that that German team eliminated the Blaugrana in the quarterfinals of the Champions League played in Lisbon after winning 2-8 .
The successful 59-year-old German coach born in Bammental who has now just signed for Barça for two seasons after the departure of Xavi Hernández was also the first coach dismissed since the position was created in 1926. Germany did not overcome the first phase in the 2022 World Cup and then chained a series of defeats in friendly matches, the last against Japan by 1-4, which in September 2023 caused the sudden dismissal of Flick and the termination of a contract of about six million that It was considered a record in the Mannschaft.
There is a Prime Video documentary that will be released in September and from which some images are already arriving in which the controversy over the figure of Flick is also noted. A scene in which a fight from the coach is shown contrasts with his polite and humanistic talks in which he appeals to solidarity and protection that have caused the astonishment of some media in Germany. Flick has always been a person who has nothing to do with the direct, strong and arrogant character that is attributed to the Germans and especially Bayern Munich.
And Flick himself generates conflicting opinions if you ask Hasan Salihamidzic or Lothar Matthaüs. He had serious differences with the former sports director of the German club and, on the contrary, he has always been praised by the famous ex-footballer: “The Flick style will suit Barça well; he can recover the magic of Guardiola’s team; “He likes attractive and offensive football,” Matthaüs announced. Flick wants to coach Barça so much that he ensures that his demands will be few and that he will adapt to the conditions marked by the crisis of the club chaired by Joan Laporta.
The president had in mind hiring a German coach since he returned to the Camp Nou in 2021 and kept Ronald Koeman in charge before being replaced by Xavi. The names of Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann were on Laporta’s lips before finally choosing Flick, whose agent is Pini Zahavi, curiously the same as Robert Lewandowski’s. At 35 years old and with a financially increasing contract, the Polish forward had become transferable for Xavi when he is still the flagship of Laporta’s project.
Lewandowski was the striker par excellence for Flick’s Bayern in the same way that Ilkay Gündogan was his captain in the Mannschaft. The awarding of the armband to a footballer of Turkish origin caused a lot of commotion in Germany. It is also known that Marc-André Ter Stegen does not get along very well with international Manuel Neuer, a close friend of Toni Tapalovic, who will be one of Flick’s assistants at Barça along with Marcus Sorg, who is considered capital for the tactical work to be carried out at Barcelona.
Flick’s intentions are still unknown. The memory of Bayern from 2019 and 2020 is that of a vertical and intense team, with a direct game and applied pressure, away from long possessions and very comfortable with fast attacks, physical and also technical due to the quality of its forwards , European champions after defeating PSG. That team in which ex-Azulgrana Thiago and Real Madrid player Alaba played preferred to exchange blows and impose their punching rather than having control of the game, as was seen in the match against Barça.
The German team played in an opposite way to the Barça team still led by Messi. The Argentine’s goals then still concealed the shortcomings of a team that was losing identity and moving away from style and DNA. Flick is not exactly a defender of positional play nor of the 4-3-3 so linked to Barça. He does not seem like a reversalist coach either and, therefore, it is not very clear what his plan is after the lack of improvement in Barça football has caused the disagreement with Xavi.
Barcelona understands that its precedent with Bayern in 2019 supports its commitment to Flick. The German coach inherited a squad decimated by egos and victim of the automated game imposed by Nico Kovac. Flick knew how to sew into the locker room, assemble a team, push on the field and put together an excellent preseason to win that particular Champions League organized in Lisbon in times of covid-19. Also his hand and preparation of strategy plays as Joachim Löw’s assistant helped Germany win the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Flick has always worked as an assistant in the national team since 2006 after having coached teams such as TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in Tercera and Red Bull Salzburg. This explains why in 2021 he replaced Löw after he had previously surprisingly announced his departure from Bayern due to alleged differences with executives such as Salihamidzic. The condition of coach, however, which he had as an assistant and the poor results, especially in Qatar 2022, led to his goodbye in 2023 and a waiting time until the call from Barça.
Despite having other offers, Flick is betting on the Barça club, for which he has made everything relatively easy, including the salary, which will be lower than that of Xavi. “He will suffer because only winning will save him,” is the message that the former Barça coach has left him. We will have to know the opinion of Deco, the sports director who signed him after an interview facilitated by Laporta. Deco, a former Porto player, surely remembers Flick on the goal line, when he was a Bayern player, unable to prevent Madjer’s backheel in the 1987 continental final.
That player from Bayern, and then from Cologne, who according to what they say has started studying Spanish after fighting with the Englishman, is today the coach of a Barça trapped by memories, some of the Champions League, a tournament they have not won since 2015.
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