Life is smiling on Hansi Flick in Barcelona. He is enjoying the city and his job. Never in his wildest dreams did he expect to get off to such a good start with his new team.
Flick is not alone, however. He shares his life in Barcelona with his wife Silke, with whom he lives in a spacious apartment in the upper part of Barcelona.
Behind the figure of a tough and rigid German coach, Hansi Flick hides a human side that has changed his life.
Father of Two Daughters and Grandfather of Two Grandchildren
Hansi Flick met his current wife Silke when he was 18. She was 15 years old. They married in 1987 and had two daughters: Kathrin and Hannah, who were born in 1989 and 1991.
Little Hannah, who is a photographer and runs an Instagram channel, has made him a grandfather twice. Flick loves playing Lego with them.
Not everything has been blissful in Hansi Flick's personal life, though. In 2010, his wife Silke was diagnosed with breast cancer. This situation changed his life and his priorities.
Cancer Strikes His Life
“I felt fear like never before. Silke was diagnosed with breast cancer. I felt terror like I had never felt before.
"Being there for her and the kids was even more important than usual.” He chose to temporarily leave soccer to dedicate himself to his wife.
On the subject he said: “I still admire my wife for the strength and inner calm with which she overcame such difficult situation. I cried every night. I stayed in bed with tears in my eyes much more often than she did.”
Silke got over it, but that stage of her life “taught me to be humble and grateful."
"We blind ourselves to death, often with methodically. However, in my experience, facing the fact that we won't be here forever leads to a more conscious way of living. There are bigger and more important things than soccer,” he said.
Flick admits that the situation changed him completely. “Ever since that stage in my life, I see meetings and interpersonal relationships from a different perspective and I never take them for granted,” he said.
He Set Up a Sports Shop
With Silke's help, Flick set up a business and ran the sports shop “Hansi Flick Sport und Freizeit”. It was established in Bammental near Heidelberg, for almost 20 years. He left in 1995 after retiring from soccer.
Flick is a tough guy, but calm and easy to talk to, and easy to understand. He has shown great skill in his success at Barcelona, the history of which includes him as the coach responsible for the humiliating 2-8 defeat against Bayern Munich.