Thiago Alcântara has temporarily joined Hansi Flick’s coaching staff at Barcelona after confirming his retirement from playing last week.
Alcantara knows both the club and the German coach well from his playing career.
“Thiago is set to spend the coming weeks as part of Hansi Flick’s staff in order to train as a coach,” A Barcelona statement read.
“The former player is expected to remain with the men’s football first team squad for the entire summer, and therefore, will be on the U.S tour.”
After coming through the ranks at La Masia, Barça’s youth academy, Alcantara went on to make 101 appearances for the first team before joining Bayern Munich in 2013.
The 33-year-old later played under Flick at Bayern and was an important figure as the German club won the treble in 2020.
Injuries disrupted his spell at Anfield and after making just one appearance last season — and 98 across four full campaigns — he announced his retirement after his contract expired on June 30.
However, he has quickly found himself back involved in football and will help Flick as the German coach learns Spanish and adapts to his new surroundings.
Flick has also brought Marcus Sorg, Toni Tapalovic and Heiko Westermann with him as assistant coaches, while José Ramon De la Fuente stays on as goalkeeping coach.
The Catalan club confirmed the appointment of Flick on a two-year deal in May after sacking previous coach Xavi Hernández following a trophy-less season.
1 Comment
His mates in Nigeria will galivant for years from one fashion show to another comedy show and wake up someday, years down the line, to DEMAND for the SE job as a matter of right and entitlement, with little to no experience and little to no proven capacity…… and social miscreants like Chima Eberibe Samuels, omoale9ja and their herd of pleasantly educated touts will sing behind them backstage on CSN.
Common sense has never been really common