Barcelona contact Liverpool midfielder to offer position on Hansi Flick’s staff

With Hansi Flick set to take over as the new manager of FC Barcelona, the club are making all efforts to ensure that the German tactician has all the facilities to succeed in the Catalan capital.

For starters, Barcelona are letting Flick bring in two of his former assistants in Toni Tapalovic and Marcus Sorg as part of his staff at the club.

Now, AS reports that Barcelona also want to provide Flick with an assistant who is fluent in both German and Spanish so that there are no language barriers in the locker room to directly liaise between the players and the staff.

The preferred profile of Deco’s technical secretariat is that the post should go to a former player who will finish his career.

Barcelona contact Thiago Alcantara

As such, the report states that the names of three candidates have popped up on Barcelona’s radars, with those being Liverpool midfielder Thiago Alcantara, Real Betis defender Marc Bartra and Javi Martinez of Qatar SC.

In fact, the report states that Barcelona have already contacted Thiago to test the waters and explore whether he would be willing to take up such a role.

A reunion on the cards? (Photo by CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP via Getty Images)

Thiago, a former Barça midfielder, also spent several years in Germany with Bayern Munich and spent a season playing under Flick as well.

The 33-year-old’s contract with Liverpool expires at the end of the season and he will be on his way out as a free agent and there has been some discussion about him returning to Barcelona.

It is unclear as to whether this role would involve Thiago continuing as a player or not, but the report states that there has been some pessimism at the club when they contacted his camp.

Other candidates

As mentioned earlier, Thiago is not the only player on Barcelona’s radar for this role, with Javi Martinez and Marc Bartra also being considered.

Martinez, at 35, is closer to calling time on his career than both Thiago and Bartra, but he is not someone who has spent time at Barça. Bartra, on the other hand, might not have the best command on German, having spent only a couple of seasons at Dortmund.

Ivan Rakitic, a former Barcelona player, well-versed in German and Spanish, is also under consideration, although could be an unviable option having only recently moved to Saudi Arabia.