Barcelona appoint Hansi Flick as new head coach

MADRID: Barcelona have appointed former German national team and Bayern Munich manager Hansi Flick as head coach on a two-year contract, the LaLiga club said on Wednesday.

Flick, who has not managed a club since being sacked by Germany in September 2023, will be tasked with reviving Barcelona's fortunes after the Catalan side failed to win any trophies this season under Xavi Hernandez, who was dismissed on Friday.

In a statement, the club said it had "chosen a man well known for his teams' high pressing, intense and daring style of play which has brought him great success at club level and international level, winning pretty much all there is to win in the world of football".

Barcelona highlighted the 59-year-old's success during the 2019-20 season at the helm of Bayern, with whom he won six trophies - the Bundesliga, the German Cup, the Champions League, the German Super Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup.

Xavi was sacked last week after a trophy-less season in which Barca finished 10 points behind champions Real Madrid, lost the Spanish Super Cup final to their arch-rivals and were knocked out of the Champions League by Paris St Germain in the last eight.

The German filling Xavi's shoes faces a tough challenge ahead with fixing Barca's on-field struggles amid turmoil off the pitch, including deepening financial problems and a refereeing scandal that could drag on for years.

Flick made his name assisting Germany manager Joachim Low during their 2014 World Cup winning campaign. In 2019, he joined Bayern as head coach, securing seven trophies in his two seasons in charge.

He guided Bayern to a treble in 2020, when they beat Barca 8-2 on course to winning the Champions League, before leaving the Bundesliga giants in 2021 to manage the German national team.

Flick was criticised for the four-times world champions' poor run in the 2022 World Cup, where they were eliminated in the group stage, and was eventually sacked in September 2023 after a heavy home defeat by Japan in a friendly match.