Flick and Guardiola, sole sextuple winners
Hansi Flick and Josep Guardiola have much in common. Among other things, the German and the Catalan are the only coaches to have won a sextuple in the same calendar year. Guardiola did it at FC Barcelona and Flick with Bayern Munich, and curiously both then went on to coach the other club.
Copa, Liga, Champions League and more…
Already a legend at the club from his playing days, Guardiola then made history as coach in 2009. It all started by winning the Copa del Rey by beating Athletic Club at Mestalla, and then an amazing league campaign, including the famous 6-2 win at the Santiago Bernabéu, completed the double.
There was more to come in Rome, when Barça beat Man United 2-0 to win the Champions League for the third time.
… six out of six
Later that year, Barça beat Athletic again, this time to win the Spanish Super Cup, and a goal from Pedro earned the European Super Cup at the expense of Shakthar Donetsk. Just one more trophy was required to make history, and it was one that Barça had never won before, the Clubs World Cup. It went into extra time against Estudiantes in Abu Dhabi, but a Messi goal eventually clinched it.
Flick does the same trick
Eleven years later, in 2020, Hansi Flick repeated that extraordinary feat with Bayern Munich. He’d arrived in November to take over a side that hadn’t got off to the best of starts. How things changed under the new boss. A majestic march to the Bundesliga title followed, with Robert Lewandowski contributing 34 goals in that bizarre pandemic-interrupted campaign with games played behind closed doors.
Victory over Leverkusen secured the domestic double and it became a treble when Bayern also won the Champions League, beating PSG in the final. They followed that up by beating Sevilla and Dortmund to win the two Super Cups, and Tigres of Mexico to complete the sextet in Qatar.
Crossed histories
Curiously, Bayern’s achievement came four years after Pep Guardiola himself had been in charge of Bayern, after which he moved to Man City, where he still is. Meanwhile, Flick would end up moving in the opposite direction. He left Bayern in 2021 to take charge of the German national team. And now he is heading to Barcelona, 12 years after Guardiola departed.
First meeting in Orlando
Hansi Flick and Josep Guardiola will actually be coming head to head for the first time this summer. That’s because one of the former’s very first games in charge of FC Barcelona will be on the summer tour, where they play Manchester City on July 30 in Orlando.