Not Winning the Champions League, Flick Confirms Desire to Renew Contract with Barcelona
Hansi Flick has confirmed his intention to renew his contract with Barcelona and end his career at the club.
The desire is not without reason. The German coach still aspires to success in the Champions League with Barcelona, who last won in 2015.
Flick's current contract expires in 2027. Given the failure in the Champions League this season, Flick feels he has made up for it in the upcoming season as he sees the great potential of his students to achieve a lot of success in the future.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta has also revealed that the German coach will be offered a new contract. This has not changed even though the Blaugrana were eliminated from the Champions League last week by Atletico Madrid.
Flick is still considered worthy of holding the reins of Barcelona because this season the Catalan club is still on a positive track, winning the LaLiga title in a row under the leadership of the 61-year-old coach.
"This is my plan (to renew the contract), of course. I have also said that, and this is 100 percent honest, this is the last step in my career. For me, right now it feels really good," said Flick.
Flick inherited a Barcelona team that had not won a trophy in the 2023/2024 season and led them to win the LaLiga, Copa del Rey, and Spanish Super Cup (Supercopa de Espana) trophies in his first season as a coach.
Another Spanish Super Cup follows this year, with the possibility of another league title to follow as they are nine points ahead of Real Madrid with only six games left.
However, Flick has yet to taste the Champions League title with the Blaugrana. They failed in Europe in the first season of the German coach's team, losing in the Champions League semi-finals to Inter Milan last season. Then, this season, they were defeated by Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals last week.
"For me this is a big dream (to win the Champions League here). There are two things I want in life. First, we win the Champions League."
"We have a good team for the next few years, but we have to make the right decisions in the transfer market. The decision has to be perfect."
"The second is that I want to be a coach at this stadium (Camp Nou) when it is completely finished. I don't know when that will happen."
"You never know if (I'll be here). It's about performance, winning," said Flick, who won the Champions League as Bayern Munich coach in 2020.
Meanwhile, reflecting on the defeat from Atletico Madrid further, Flick stated that a lack of leadership had hampered Barcelona in key moments.
"It's very painful. It's very painful to be eliminated. In these games, sometimes it's about the moment, but also the small details."
"Last season we had Inigo (Martinez). Inigo is a great leader. This is what we learned. We need players with this kind of leadership on the field. It's important in moments like this."
"It's about talking or telling teammates, like 'one or two meters to the left or right, or press'. This is what we need on the field, more talking."
"In training, I am very happy. However, at this time, in the quarter finals or semi finals of the Champions League, we also need this, a measured player and able to show where we have to go on the field."
"This is important. However, this team is still young. We will learn, we will grow. We have to teach some players to do this. We will do it," he said.