Hansi Flick quietly getting everything right in perfect start at Barcelona

09/12/2024 11:44 AM

New coach has not put a foot wrong and is reaping rewards from integrating himself into Spanish club and culture

First he went to the Costa Brava, visiting the small, picturesque towns of Llafranc and Calella de Palafrugell. Next he was in Sant Quirze del Vallès, taking the staff to Masia Can Ferran, a restaurant favoured by Pep Guardiola and Xavi Hernández where they have served traditional Catalan cuisine since 1949. Then he was back in Barcelona for the Diada, Catalonia's national day which commemorates the fall of the city in 1714. And on Sunday Hansi Flick's Catalan week will be complete when he travels to Girona, home of Carles Puigdemont, the Generalitat's president in exile, for the derby.

"Flick is integrating into the country, the city and the club, and he it was who said he wanted to experience this day that's so special in Catalonia," Barcelona's president, Joan Laporta, said after his coach joined the club delegation laying a floral offering at the statue of Rafael Casanova i Comes, the conseller en cap (mayor) injured during the siege 310 years ago. "A round of applause for Flick," wrote one nationalist newspaper, "next step, speak Catalan in press conferences, but let's not hurry him". Applause? Ten days earlier, at the Lluís Companys Olympic stadium on Montjuïc hill, they had sung his name.