Hansi Flick, the German ‘mosquito’

In one of the offices of the Victoria Bammental facilities, the club where Hansi Flick (Mückenloch, 1965) took his last steps as a footballer and began as a coach, a very special book is kept like a treasure: Hansi Flick, his biography. In it, the life of the current Barça coach is reviewed from his childhood to his latest successes with Bayern, at the beginning of this decade. And its pages highlight a statement corroborated by those who knew him when he was young: “Hansi Flick always knew that he would fly high, that he would not go unnoticed.” A reality that he has confirmed by building a brilliant career on the bench and an enviable track record.

Far from looking back, the German coach has earned the opportunity to continue fattening his belly with success. In the first opportunity he has had with Barça, he already aspires to debut his record as a Barça player with the Spanish Super Cup. It will be his sixth final as head coach. Of the previous five, all in 2020 with Bayern (Cup, Champions League, German Super Cup, European Super Cup and Club World Cup), he emerged victorious. Curiously, the last one was played, like this Sunday, in the Arabian Peninsula, in Qatar, where they defeated Tigres in the Club World Cup to achieve a magical sextet. Everything seems to be left in the desert. “As a coach I have coached many finals but it is clear that a classic is something enormous. We gave the players a day off so that they could recover their energy and could focus solely on training well and on the game,” he reasoned in the preview, calmly, sitting in the stadium’s press room.

Flick won the 2014 World Cup as an assistant and then added a magical sextet with Bayern in 2020

At Al Jawhara in Yida, the challenge that Flick faces is one that they impose. Although the Spanish Super Cup is not among the club’s sporting priorities or among the fans’ emotional ones, a final against Real Madrid always represents a major challenge for a Barça coach, a challenge with always unpredictable consequences. And, although this is not the case, it should not be forgotten that Ernesto Valverde was fired after losing in a Super Cup. For now, although it was not a final, Flick showed temperance in his first classic, scoring a 0-4 league victory at the Bernabéu that still hovers over everyone’s heads heading into this grand final. “These are games that cannot be compared, now we start 0-0,” he concluded in passing.

Before taking over the reins of Bayern, Flick drank from the source of Joachim Löw, with whom he shared eight years in the German team (2006-2014) as an assistant, with the unparalleled icing on the cake of winning the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. , beating Messi’s Argentina in the final in extra time. Few know Flick’s methodology better than the former German coach. “He has a lot of experience in all areas, he is a very competent person who is also a great communicator and has a lot of empathy. He speaks the language of the players and knows how to reach them,” Löw defined him publicly. A quality, empathetic, that at Barça they have already been able to verify by their good dressing room management, always capable of having a detail with footballers who have not participated in a match so that they do not lose their enthusiasm. Furthermore, Löw pointed out one of his strengths, a very important aspect for a coach of a big team like Barça: “He is a coach with a lot of expertise. He is able to prepare his team very well for offensive tasks, which is a very important factor when you play against teams that lock themselves in behind.”

“He has a lot of empathy and knows how to reach the players, he is a great communicator,” praises his ‘former boss’ Löw.

If a classic usually crosses borders, a final even more so. And, of course, its waves will reach the north of Stuttgart, where Flick spent his childhood. In Mückenloch, or mosquito nest, they trust him. The entire Barcelona fandom, too.

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