Barcelona announced on Wednesday the definitive departure of Xavi Hernández as the club's coach and shortly after, communicated the hiring of Hansi Flick as the new head coach.

The German coach signs for the next two seasons until 2026.

Flick will be the third German coach in Barcelona's history. The first was Hennes Weisweiler in the 1975-76 season, a tenure cut short due to poor results and a strained relationship with Johan Cruyff. The second was Udo Lattek, from 1981 to 1983. His tenure was marred by a strained relationship with Diego Armando Maradona and he was eventually replaced by César Luis Menotti.

Born in Heidelberg, Flick began his coaching career in 1996 as a player-manager at FC Victoria Bammental (1996-00), before taking over at Hoffenheim for five seasons (2000-05). He later served as an assistant to Giovanni Trapattoni and Lothar Matthäus at Austrian club RB Salzburg before joining the German national team in August 2006.

There, he spent six years as an assistant to Joachim Löw, helping lead Germany through four major tournaments successfully. During his time with the national team, they reached the final of Euro 2008, the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, before winning the World Cup in 2014, their first major success under Flick's coaching.

After the 2014 World Cup, where Germany famously defeated Brazil 7-1 in the semi-final, Flick left his role as assistant and became sporting director of the German Football Association (DFB) until 2017, then accepted the position of sporting director at Hoffenheim until February 2018.

A year later, in the summer of 2019, Flick was hired as an assistant to Niko Kovac at Bayern Munich, but Kovac was later sacked and Flick took over as interim coach, leading Bayern to unprecedented success. Under Flick, Bayern won the treble and famously defeated Barcelona 8-2 in the Champions League. He was named Coach of the Year at the end of the season.

The treble became a sextuple as Bayern added the German Supercup, UEFA Supercup, and FIFA Club World Cup to their haul, matching Pep Guardiola's Barcelona in 2009. In the following season, Flick won his second Bundesliga title, his seventh trophy in a year and a half, before accepting an offer to become the new head coach of the German national team.

However, despite a promising start, Germany's defeat to Japan in the 2022 World Cup proved costly, and Flick was sacked in September 2023. Since then, he has been waiting for a new opportunity, which Barcelona has now provided.