Manuel Neuer on Hansi Flick (Patreon)

"When I first joined the senior national team during the 2009 China tour from the U21s, I had my first encounter with Hansi. I was still a young player and primarily worked with our goalkeeping coach, Andreas Köpke, but it quickly became clear to me how well Hansi connected with both the players and the staff.

It was remarkable to see how important it was to Hansi that everyone involved with the team was doing well. He paid attention to the small details, asked a lot of questions, and made sure that everyone felt well taken care of. He placed great importance on communication, both on and off the pitch. This was the case with the national team back then and also later, when he came to us at Bayern.

Our first encounter was just over a decade ago, but the entire sport has evolved significantly in that time. Football has become much more complex. I certainly didn’t underestimate Hansi, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well he mastered the demands of a modern coach. Mastering tactics and having football expertise are basic requirements today. In addition, you need to handle the media, be at least somewhat familiar with new technologies and innovations, manage a much larger team, and pay attention to the finer points of leadership in our time. In my opinion, his greatest strength lies in this last point—the way he connects with the group is particularly special with him.

In his role as assistant coach at our club, his keen understanding of people was a great asset. He had a fine sense of how to maintain enough distance to give the head coach space to flourish, and when to step in to be there for the team. When he became head coach, he had to take on a lot of media work and deal with everything that comes with it. But it was always most important to him that things were right internally with the people. You could quickly tell what really bothered him. If someone from the team spoke publicly about internal matters, gave a strange interview, or let something slip, you could see how much it irritated him. These could be minor issues, but Hansi would address even the smallest incident immediately. The reaction from the team was sometimes, 'Why is he dwelling on this? Why does it bother him so much?’

Trust and being able to trust one another are big themes for him. If he can’t trust someone, he struggles. He’ll just go through the motions and won’t really open up. But if he can trust someone, then he’s fully himself and can use all his interpersonal strengths. This is how he led us as a team. From the beginning, it was important to him that we, the senior players, helped him and worked closely together. He wanted to hear our views and opinions, wanted to know how we perceived the atmosphere, and only then would he make important decisions.

I think this approach is absolutely fitting for our times. In a group where there are up to 40 people in the inner circle, you can’t notice everything as an individual. The fact that he communicated this openly contributed to the strong and close relationship between the players and him. Everyone sensed that he liked to be helped. He didn’t have to pretend he could do everything on his own; instead, he tried to involve others and spread the responsibility across multiple shoulders. Nevertheless, he always had a clear opinion and vision of his own.

When Niko Kovac was let go, everyone was naturally curious about who would come next. The club’s stance was more along the lines of, 'Who’s available on the market? Who’s not doing so well that we can get?' and not 'We have Hansi here.' I don’t want to overstate it, but I believe that after his great success with us, he would have appreciated more recognition at some point. He was professional enough never to show it, but I suspect that this might have contributed to his early departure.

From a footballing perspective, he won us over with his bold philosophy from the very beginning. We liked that he dared to play with a lot of intensity. He clearly communicated that we wanted to win the ball early, press the opponent in their own danger zone, and take the risk that it might lead to one-on-one situations at the back. Our backline often played extremely high in many games, my role became more offensive, and the opponent often had little room to breathe. We were all fully behind this approach.

I think the fact that he was an assistant coach for so long has some advantages. As an assistant coach, he could be closer to the players, act as a confidant and friend. Since many of us already knew him in that role, there was a good connection. You don’t think twice about what you say; you just address things directly. This benefits the bigger picture. You can feel this again now with the national team: the young players are blossoming because they dare to make mistakes.

And Hansi can experiment a lot, which he enjoys. He can involve many players and test what best fits our system in the national team.

What sets Hansi apart: He’s not just our coach, but a friend to the group. No matter who he works with, he never works against people. He works towards a goal and with people. And he works on an equal footing. In a meeting, he’s not someone who sits at the head of the table to emphasize his authority. He just sits down in the middle and talks to us normally. That’s typical Hansi.

However, he sticks to a clear line. Things he doesn’t like or that don’t sit well with him, he addresses very clearly. He can also get really angry. For example, if others make decisions that they have no right to make and he finds out, it irritates him. He can’t understand why he wasn’t involved or consulted.

He places great value on personal connections and family. That’s when you see not just Hansi the coach, but also the person, the young and proud grandpa who has a dog and is interested in many things off the field. Sometimes he’s really curious, which I find quite funny. He knows, for example, that I’m not the most emotional person, and can tell from my expressions and body language when something isn’t quite right. He then addresses it directly, and once I said to him, 'After training, after training.' But he kept at it, wanting to know right away what was going on. I was in goalkeeper training, and he came over again and said, 'Come on, tell me now!’

There was a moment during the training camp in Qatar when I went to his room and openly told him that my personal situation had changed and that it was weighing on me. I wanted him to understand the background, in case I wasn’t fully focused. At that time, I hadn’t spoken to anyone else about it, but I felt the need to share it with Hansi. I had some respect for the media’s reaction and wanted to bring Hansi on board early. He appreciated my openness and made it clear to me that the most important thing is for me to be well as a person and to be happy. The way he reacted so calmly and didn’t make a big deal out of it was something I found very special."

Reference: 'Hansi Flick - Im Moment': https://amzn.to/4e5YJ3Z