Hansi Flick has moved to a 300-square-meter house with a pool, located in Turó Park and whose rent amounts to 39,000 euros per month —information from Laura Fa in El Periódico— and will sign his renewal as Barcelona coach for one more year, until 2028 —and possibly a second optional year—, once his team has won the league for the second consecutive time. Two years after his arrival, the next challenge is to conquer the Champions League and see the Camp Nou completed to then live as a happy retiree in Barcelona and act as an active Barça member. The neighbors seem as delighted as the culés with Flick’s figure. Many consider him the ideal follower of Johan Cruyff’s work.
For Barcelona fans, the record and feelings are measured above all from the legacy of the creator of the Dream Team. Barça has won its 29th league championship, 19 since 1991, when Cruyff’s first was held —in the same period Madrid has 11—. Flick has also won all six El Clásicos since he has been at Barça, the same time Mbappé has been at the Bernabéu. Madrid has gone two years without titles, a drought not seen since 2010, while Barcelona has won five of the eight titles contested —they were eliminated from the two Champions and the last Cup—. The Barcelona antidote has not been Madrid, but Atlético under Cholo Simeone.
The hand of the coaches has been crucial in Barça’s history. Flick’s impact has also been decisive at a critical moment for the club due to the poor inherited economic situation and social demobilization caused by more than two years of exile in Montjuïc due to the Camp Nou works. The return to the stadium is as revitalizing —they have won all 18 league matches— as Flick’s leadership. Barcelona regained self-esteem and identity with the coach born 61 years ago in Heidelberg. That adventurous, breathtaking, and moving 2025 team, committed to a genuine style guaranteed by La Masia, has evolved and corrected itself to win the league again.
Despite seeming more fragile, the numbers in terms of points and goals have been better than in 2024-2025. There have been many injuries (18) affecting vital players like Lamine, Pedri, Raphinha, Joan García, Bernal, De Jong, and Lewandowski. The squad’s limitations also prevented the blaugranas from maintaining a sustained playing rhythm and forced them to overcome difficulties from the third match played in Vallecas (1-1). “Egos kill success,” Flick stated. The coach handled his public messages in English very well —he understands Spanish well— to alert or encourage the boys led by the 18-year-old Lamine Yamal.
The conclusion after losing at the Bernabéu and being five points behind Madrid was that Barça pressed less, had lost play, appetite, and charm, and conceded too many goals, even with the signing of Joan García. “I promise you will soon see another Barça,” he predicted when they lost 3-0 to Chelsea. The results have been harsher in the Champions and the Cup —“we received a great lesson at the right time,” he said after the 4-0 at the Metropolitano— than in the league.
Flick repeated after every bad result: “I am proud of the team. We will come back.” Also after the last defeat in Girona. “We need to rest and return with a different mentality,” he said in Montilivi.
The game plan remained as unchanged as the premise of being a “united and compact” team, emphasized the coach after the 3-3 draw in Bruges. “We are Barça and we want to play our football, we are not going to change; I am not that kind of coach. We will play with our philosophy. We will not defend in our own half to counterattack and win 1-0.” The management of the locker room and squad in difficult situations has been effective if you look at the results: from -5 they went to +14. Camaraderie and the commitment of the players, mostly culés, many revalued by Flick, played in his favor. The coach brought out the best version of each player last season, to the point that several showed an unexpected level, like Raphinha.
It was not easy for the squad to maintain the level and meet the expectations generated in 2025. Flick invented Gerard Martín as a substitute for Iñigo Martínez and elevated Eric García as a reference. There are no impossibilities or excuses for a coach who acts as a leader and connects with Johan Cruyff’s unashamed message. Laporta was right when he said after listening to Ralf Rangnick that he wanted a winning German coach to make the quality leap he did not find with Xavi or Ronald Koeman.
The solution was to sign a coach with blue eyes like Cruyff. The integration has been complete. “I am very happy with how things work here, it is like being part of a big family. It is about winning with style,” Flick has summarized, always on the sidelines, even the day his father passed away.
