He was fired, ousted, but today he is the best soccer coach in the world.

I wanted to do my internship at the bank. But Stuttgart executives said if he did not sign the professional contract, he could only play in the reserve team. But I definitely wanted a stable civic profession as well, if my football career didn’t turn out as planned. “

This was said by an 18-year-old mature man who thought responsibly 37 years ago. When he was working part-time at a bank branch, he later turned down a professional contract with Stuttgart. Therefore, Hans-Dieter Flick did not join the VfB, but instead remained with SV Sandhausen’s amateur guard. And he practiced his profession in a financial institution. With that, he lost a Bundesliga championship title, as Stuttgart won a gold medal the following year, 1984.

But life made up for it a lot. A year later, he was called up by Bayern Munich. At that point, he no longer referred to bank advancement or civic plans, but seized the great opportunity. It cannot be said that he was the star of the team that included Pfaff, Aumann, Pflügler, Augenthaler, Matthäus, Lerby, Brehme, Reuter, Thon, Wohlfahrt, but he could not be lost for four years. He had the role of the eleventh permanent player. He became champion with Bayern four times in five years, but unfortunately as a teenager he felt good because he shouldn’t put everything into football. He had to retire at the age of 27. In 1992, he played his last Bundesliga1 game wearing the Cologne jersey.

Flick was not in the banking sector, but he tried to coach players at a very low level. For his love of soccer. At the Victoria Bammental. Then the name of Flick, which also made it to the BEK final in 1987, created a team that didn’t just secretly text big plans. In August 2000, he became the head coach at Hoffenheim. In 2001, when he had his team, Bayern Munich won the Champions League for the first time, they became champion with the village team with 3,400 inhabitants. Not a bad start as a coach, at 36 years old. The joint work began with the victory at the home of VfL Kirchheim / Teck reached the top on the track VfR Heilbronn. Flick won the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg, a group from the fourth division. In addition, he became a rookie team champion, as Hoffenheim started the new millennium in the fifth division.

So the Flick-Hoffenheim marriage got off to a good start. Therefore, the young man’s independent coaching career started well. In the first year they had no elimination problems in the third division, and in the second year they had already become a leading team. But this was also expected by the owner, who was, and still is, one of the richest men in Germany. The president’s name is Dietmar Hopp.

In the spring against organizations they protested in various Bundesliga matches. But back then, he was just the likeable owner of a software development and manufacturing company who was a soccer fan. And who thought he would lead his favorite town’s team to the first division. To implement the plan, he seemed to have found a great partner in the ambitious coach.

German football fans first heard about Hoffenheim in 2003, when the team was promoted to the German Cup 64. By winning the games here in a row, they suddenly found themselves in the top eight. The country has yet to notice Eintracht Trier’s farewell, but it has already noted Karlsruhe’s 4-0 knockout. They then defeated Bayer Leverkusen 3-2. The team that fought in the Champions League final a year and a half earlier. Quarterfinals of the Cup, fifth place in the third division, with only one point of promotion. Hop liked it! But he finished 14 points from that spot the following year and Hopp couldn’t forgive Flick for that. In 2005, he fired the coach.

And Hoffenheim moved up to the second division in 2007, a year and a half after Flick left. Then in 2008 to the Bundesliga1. It has been there ever since. Flick, on the other hand, appeared on a club team in 2017 after 2005.

Dietmar Hopp called him back to Hoffenheim. Maybe he had regrets about the 2005 incident? Many say yes. The parties entered into a five-year employment contract, and after signing it, the owner did not skimp on words of praise:

Flick is one of the best professionals in Germany. And a nice and understanding man. “

It was only his work that couldn’t be clarified precisely. He was officially CEO, but he didn’t really know what his job was either. In fact, he was destined to play the role of “face of the club.” And perhaps his job was to supervise professional work, make recommendations. The team had an excellent young coach, Julian Nagelsmann, who made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League with his current team, Leipzig, a few weeks ago. I mean, he didn’t need a tutor. Nagelsmann spoke quite succinctly about the joint work of just 241 days then:Flick often boiled down to workouts, sometimes even locker room. We had a good conversation. “

But the situation was untenable. And that was clearly caused by Hopp. Who, if he had handled his affairs in civilian life in this way, would hardly have been one of the most successful companies in the world because of what he runs. It seems that even in the big Bundesliga, club owners can produce strange things. Manager Alaxander Rosen saw this as follows:

It was a mistake to hire Flick because it was not clear what his job was. No one was missing from the organizational structure. This is not the first time in the club’s history that an unreasonable decision has been made. “

Like a gentleman, Flick realized that it wasn’t necessary and left by mutual agreement before the end of the season. He practically failed there a second time. More specifically, they were overthrown. Fortunately, it’s not just Hoffenheim and Dietmer Hopp that exist in the world of football. So today we consider Hansi Flick as one of the most successful trainers of the 21st century. In other words, between Hoffenheim’s two terms, as coach of the German national team, he assisted the federal captain, Joachim Löw, in four world events. He was part of the 2014 World Championship title, the 2010 World Championship bronze, the 2008 European Championship silver and the 2012 European Championship bronze. In Germany, it is not just the job of the coach working together with the national team to unload the buoys at the beginning of training and help transport the moving gates. He also worked properly on the road to great success. Just not very spectacular for the public. Then, last November, the time also came. But this story is known to all football fans. First, temporarily, then in the short term and finally in the long term, he took control of the best team in the world today, Bayern Munich. And to be able to put this best marker in front of the Bayern name with a calm heart, it has a lot to do with it. This year he produced an impressive balance under the leadership of the shooting guard who has now won the BEK / BL six times.

He has won 25 of the 26 betting matches he has played in 2020 so far. He only played one draw against BL Leipzig’s semi-finalist in the league. They all defeated others, while winning the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the Champions League.

A calm, sober and rarely smiling coach has thus become one of the best in football history. And with a bit of hype, the really exciting part of your coaching career is just beginning.