Hansi Flick will be the new coach of Barcelona. “There are still some issues to define and finish outlining the contract with the lawyers,” they report from the Barça entity. The German coach, then, will sit on the Barça bench next season after verbally agreeing on a one-year contract, plus another optional one. Flick will land at Barça alongside goalkeeping coach Toni Tapalović – best man at the wedding of Manuel Neuer, public enemy of Barça captain Ter Stegen – and Marcus Sorg. The Barça sports management will be in charge of the rest of the staff technical. According to the same sources, Flick will have a contract of around 3.5 million euros, a little less than half of what his predecessor in office, Xavi Hernández, was paid.
Finally, president Joan Laporta gets his German coach. After dreaming of Tuchel and Nagelsmann, the Barça president settles for Flick. “He is a football coach,” they say, with some irony, from the sports area, after complaining about Xavi’s work methods. “He is a guy who has clear ideas, he knows what work and discipline are. He won everything with Bayern,” add the same sources.
Deco traveled with Bojan to London last Wednesday. There they met with Flick to talk about the project. Laporta, a close friend of his representative, Pini Zahavi, was in charge of the contract, the same one who approached Lewandowski to Barcelona in exchange for 45 million, plus five in variables and another 10 in commission as reported at the time. TheAthletic. “Thank you very much for bringing Lewandowski to Futbol Club Barcelona, Brother! (Thank you for bringing Lewandowski to Barcelona)”, said a euphoric Laporta, before 45,000 people at the Camp Nou, on the day of the forward’s presentation.
The first contacts between Barcelona and Flick date back to the beginning of the year. According to sources close to the German coach, it was Robert Lewandowski who called the coach in January to inform him that the club had been interested in him. The sporadic calls did not stop occurring between the two. Flick has maintained a good relationship with the Pole since he led Bayern between 2019 and 2021, a two-year period that culminated with the Champions League during the pandemic and the conquest of the sextete. As explained in the Barcelona offices, Laporta consulted two countrymen who coincided with the coach during his time in the national team, Ter Stegen and Gündogan, about the possibility of incorporating him as a replacement for Xavi. Both, always according to the same sources, gave their approval to his signing. “He is a great person who we value a lot in the German team,” the former City player highlighted in public. A response similar to that of Ter Stegen: “It may not be my field, but I can say that he is a great person and a great coach.”
Flick is famous for having coordinated the grassroots football of the German federation, where he worked between 2006 and 2019, coinciding with a period of methodological renewal in Germany. Laporta has told him that one of the vectors of Barça’s strategy in the coming years will be to reinforce the first team with players from the quarry.
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