Hansi Flick's love affair with Barcelona
With a low profile, the coach enjoys walking with his family through some places in the capital, as well as traditional Catalan cuisine.
BarcelonaHansi Flick is "a normal man." That's how they describe him within the club, where they highlight his pleasant demeanor and emphasize his "hard-working" nature and his passion for "discretion." Flick is not only a normal man, he is also a happy man at Barcelona. His signing was marked by the comings and goings he suffered when he seemed to have the Barça bench secured, only to see how Xavi Hernández's continuity was announced and he reluctantly accepted the opportunity he had long wanted to take over: to be Barça's coach. Finally, in another twist that showed him how changeable things can be at the club, Deco and Bojan invited him on a lightning trip to London in mid-May. Xavi personally contacted Flick during those days to confirm what he read in the press: he would take over from him.
After the defeat in Girona, the club began to leak to the media that Xavi would be fired despite having been confirmed as coach a month earlier, on the memorable sushi night at president Laporta's house. From the top brass of the Barcelona club, no one was assuring the Terrassa native anything, who lived in anguish reading the information that explained that he had one foot and a half out of the bench despite the fact that no one from the club had communicated it to him officially. After Deco and Bojan's trip to the English capital to meet with Flick, Xavi contacted Flick directly via instant messaging, who knew him slightly through advertising matters for the Adidas brand. The former coach did so because he was not getting any explanations from Barça, as published by The Athletic.
Due to confidentiality regarding his signing from Barça, the German coach denied Xavi that he would be the chosen one, although Deco, as Laporta's emissary, had already convinced him to accept the position. Laporta had his heart set on wanting Flick, who is also represented by Pini Zahavi, the same agent as Lewandowski and who maintains a close relationship with the Barça leader. This episode opened wounds between the Catalan and the German. Both would end up making peace after a few months. It would be shortly after the farewell event for Andrés Iniesta organised jointly with Barça on 8 October. At that celebration, both were invited, but Xavi, as a former teammate and friend of Iniesta, was a few seats away from the Barça top brass, where Laporta and Flick were, among other executives and directors of the club, as well as some first team players.
The quiet life of Hansi Flick in Barcelona
Flick, uncomfortable with the tension with Xavi, the outgoing coach and a legend of the club, wanted to resolve the problem. The German decided to contact him and have a meeting, which finally took place at the home of the player from Egar. This friendly meeting was made public by Xavi himself on social media. Despite being hurt by his departure from Barça, the former coach wanted to put his Barcelona fan base first and, like any other Barça player, wish the best to his successor on the bench. In fact, Xavi and Flick are neighbours. They live within walking distance. Both have a residence located in the upper part of Barcelona, close to Turó Park.
There, the German coach enjoys the Catalan capital with his family. The Barça coach likes to walk around Turó Park. He does so accompanied by his wife Silke, with whom he has been married for almost 40 years, and sometimes also by his daughters Kathtrin and Hannah. With Silke they ran a business founded in 1995 in the German city of Bammental and renamed Hansi Flick Sport und Freizeit (Sport and Leisure). It was a sports equipment store that gradually became a reference point for the entire region. The adventure lasted 22 years, until Flick picked up the call from Bayern Munich.
The Barça coach is also a lover of Catalan cuisine. In Barcelona, the first restaurant he set foot in was Can Ugal. A mutual friend from Munich recommended that he go see chef Víctor Pardo and his team, and the German coach did not hesitate. He often frequents Colmado Wilmot, also serving traditional Catalan cuisine and owned by chef Eugeni de Diego, who also has the Lombo restaurant in the Barcelona capital.
Hansi Flick's arrival in the Barça dressing room
His arrival last summer was quiet. The club protected him from the public eye at a time of tension due to the lack of a season, the poor financial situation and the truculent departure of Xavi. Not in vain, his presentation came two months after announcing his signing. 60 days in which he worked completely in silence. He arrived accompanied by his trusted squires: Marcus Sorg and Toni Tapalovic, with whom he maintains a close relationship. Flick is one of the first to arrive at the Sports City every morning. "He takes care of all the details," they explain in the ARA from Sant Joan Despí. Although he has a broken hand with his players and has won them over with a direct speech and management - "he is low, knight and king," they define from the dressing room - he has a non-negotiable red line: he does not tolerate lateness. German precision at the Barça kick-off.