Two of the world’s soccer heavyweights made coaching moves on Wednesday, with Hansi Flick being appointed head coach of Barcelona, and Vincent Kompany being hired as head coach of Bayern Munich.
Flick replaces Barca legend Xavi as the man in charge after the latter dealt with rumors of his sacking for weeks with the way that Barcelona’s season played out. They finished second to rival Real Madrid in the La Liga table, was runner-up to Madrid in the Supercopa, and fell to their rivals in El Clasico, losing all three matches versus Madrid this season. Barcelona also fell in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals to PSG, failing to reach the UCL semifinals in all three of Xavi’s seasons at the helm.
The Barcelona supporters have much higher expectations than that, and they believe Flick is the man to help them achieve those loftier goals. His last managerial position saw him sacked in September 2023 as coach of Germany’s national team after two years in charge. His run with Germany started off great as the Germans went undefeated in their first 13 games under Flick. However, things tailspun from there as Germany failed to advance out of the group stage of the 2022-23 UEFA Nations League, and things got even worse in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The Germans failed to win each of their first two matches and were eliminated during group play despite entering as No. 11 in the FIFA World Ranking.
After just one victory over Germany’s first six matches of 2023, Flick was relieved of his duties. Prior to coaching Germany’s national team, Flick led Bayern Munich to a pair of Bundesliga titles in 2019-20 and 2020-21. He also won the Champions League in the former season and the German Cup in the 2019-20 season as well.
Flick spent 17 years as a manager for various German clubs, which followed an 18-year playing career, also in Germany. Barcelona will be his first job in soccer outside of his homeland, but he’s ready for the challenge. During a tour of Barca’s facilities on his first day at the job, he remarked how the Barcelona style of play mirrors his preferred style in many ways.
While Flick’s hiring had been discussed for days before his actual appointment, Kompany being chosen as the man to lead Bayern Munich came as a surprise to most. He replaced Thomas Tuchel, who was the coach who had replaced the coach who had taken over Bayern following Flick.
Kompany was in charge of Burnley for the last two seasons, taking over for the club when it was still in the EFL Championship. He set many records in his first season, including a Championship record ten-match win streak and winning the league with seven matches remaining. He led Burnley to promotion to the English Premier League for the 2023-24 season, but the stay would be short-lived. Burnley finished 19th in the EPL this past season and has been relegated back to the Championship.
Despite expressing his intent to make Burnley a winner again after the relegation, Kompany elected to take on the challenge of coaching one of the most successful soccer clubs in the world. During his introduction as Bayern’s new coach, he talked about the prestige of Bayern and what type of play supporters should expect from his team.
“As a coach, you have to stand for what you are as a character: I love having the ball, being creative—but we also have to be aggressive and courageous on the pitch. I’m now looking forward to the basics: working with the players, building a team. Once the basis is right, success will follow.”
Prior to Burnley, Kompany spent three years in his native Belgium as coach of Anderlecht. Bayern fans can only hope that Kompany is as successful as a manager for them as he was as a player during his 17-year career. He spent eight of his 11 years at Manchester City as captain and won the EPL four times and the FA Cup twice. He also spent 15 years playing with the Belgium national team, including seven as captain, and he led the Belgians to a third-place finish at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona are two of just five soccer clubs in the world that have won the UEFA Champions League/European Cup at least five times. Thus, both teams’ supporters have high expectations for the new men in charge.
