Hansi Flick: Record coach celebrates his 60th birthday

For years, Hansi Flick was always the man in the background. As an assistant coach of Jogi Löw (65), he won the World Championship with the German national team, the laurels dashed another. Sports director of the DFB, assistant coach at FC Bayern – there was no large spotlight for the modest coach. Until everything changed in November 2019: Flick became head coach at Bayern Munich and wrote a success story with ups and downs that is second to none. On February 24, the record coach celebrates its 60th birthday.

Hans-Dieter Flick was born in Heidelberg in 1965. Little Hansi was already on the soccer field at the age of five and was a fan of FC Bayern Munich. “When we played football as children, I always wanted to be Gerd Müller,” Flick once said. This was followed by stations about teams such as BSC Mückenloch and SV Sandhausen before actually signing his heart club at the age of 20. He won five years and 100 Bundesliga games at FC Bayern, four championships and the DFB Cup.

Then Flick switched to 1. FC Köln. But after three years and at the age of 28 he finally ended his active player career there. Too many lengthy injuries made it impossible for him to continue kicking. Perhaps a stroke of luck in the review, because as a trainer, Flick should write much more success. In 2003 he acquired his coaching license and worked for TSG Hoffenheim and Red Bull Salzburg – in 2006 Jogi Löw finally brought him to the German national soccer team as an assistant coach.

A legendary coaching duo was born that is still unchallenged today. Löw, Flick and the DFB team were almost unstoppable: in 2008 they became Vice European champions, in 2010 third at the World Cup. In 2014, Flick/Löw culminated when Germany became 1-0 in the World Cup final against Argentina. “I am considered reserved and quiet. But people are wrong. I could get really loud in the cabin,” Flick recalled back to the time as an assistant coach. The World Cup title gave him “feelings of happiness” and compensated “for all efforts”.

Shortly afterwards, Hansi Flick left the coaching bank for the time being and became sports director at the DFB and Managing Director of TSG Hoffenheim until he returned to the 2018/19 season “home” and became assistant coach at Bayern alongside Niko Kovač (53).

“It is an open secret: my club has always been FC Bayern Munich,” the coach describes his connection to the record champion in his book “At the moment – about success, the beauty of the game and what really matters in life”. Kovač’s expulsion in 2019 finally ensured that he was appointed interim coach. But Flick achieved so good performances with Bayern that he was allowed to stay – and wrote history again.

As a second coach of all time, he managed to get the sexupe in 2020, i.e. the championship, the national trophy, the Champions League, the National Supercup, the UEFA Super Cup and the World Cup. Flick and FCB set a record after the next with a winning rate of 81 percent and an average of 2.55 points per game in all competitions. But the super coach remained modest: “You sometimes have to leave other parts of the club in the spotlight that also deserves. I personally do not need the spotlight,” he emphasized in an interview with “France Football”.

Despite the successes, Flick’s contract should be dissolved prematurely in 2021 after the seventh Bayern title in one and a half years due to inconsistencies with the then Bavarian sports director Hasan Salihamidžić (48) in 2021. “I did not show it, but left FC Bayern as a coach, I hurt a lot,” he wrote in his book. However, it would have violated its principles to continue as a head coach. However, the love of the club was still unbroken, he emphasized: “As a player, I was able to celebrate great success as a coach. FC Bayern is my club.”

But the next big task was waiting for Hansi Flick: it went back to the DFB, because after Jogi Löw’s departure, he was appointed head coach. Flick showed itself down-to-earth whether this big task was in turn: “You know my credo from my time at Bayern Munich: This is not about me. We are a team of coaches,” he emphasized to the “Tages-Anzeiger”.

The time with the national team was again a record of the record – but different than desired. Flick finally wanted to get the team back on track and initially set a positive record with eight opening victories. But then it went rapidly downhill. For the second time in a row, the DFB was eliminated in the preliminary round at the 2022 World Cup. There was violent criticism for Flick. “Designed him as intolerable if he made such” tournament mistakes “.

The sad highlight of Flick’s career as a national coach was the 1: 4 defeat against Japan in September 2023. “I’m the right coach,” he confirmed his position after the embarrassment, but that shouldn’t help. Flick was released the next day – as the first national coach in the history of German football. described him in a comment as “overwhelmed and advisory resistant” that the discharge was “long overdue”.

After this difficult time, it initially became quiet around Hansi Flick. In the meantime he is back: with FC Barcelona it should work now. There he wants to bend his scraped call again, and at the same time lead the once so successful club out of the crisis. For the coach, the new job is again fulfilled: “When I started to be a coach, I followed Barça because Barça played a fantastic football. I am very happy to be here. It’s incredible what we do Experience, “he said in an interview with the in -house broadcaster” Barça TV “. Already in 2006 he sat on the stand at Camp Nou and knew: “One day I want to train here. That is what I said: ‘One day I want to be a coach.’ And I did that. “

At the moment it also looks really good: Hansi Flick is on the way to the La-Liga top with FC Barcelona. Another sense of achievement would always be desired to the exceptional trainer.