Bundesliga: Bayern Munich hand coach Hansi Flick contract extension until 2023

German Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich have handed coach Hansi Flick a new contract keeping him at the club until 2023, the club announced Friday.

“Bayern are very happy with Hansi Flick’s work. The team has developed well under him and are playing attractive football,” said club CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in a statement.

Flick, a former assistant to Germany coach Joachim Loew, took the reins at Bayern in November after his predecessor Niko Kovac was sacked.

Initially hired as an interim solution, the 55-year-old led Bayern from fourth back to the top of the table, and was rewarded with a contract until the end of this season.

With 18 wins in 21 competitive matches at the helm, Flick put Bayern on course for a record-extending eighth successive Bundesliga title before the season was interrupted by the coronavirus crisis.

“Football is facing big challenges. We believe that Hansi is the right head coach for these times,” said sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic.

Rummenigge, meanwhile, praised Flick’s “human qualities” and “empathy”.

Bayern is Flick’s first job as head coach in top-flight club football.

Despite his relative inexperience at club level, the coach has proven popular with senior Bayern players who had grown increasingly frustrated under Kovac.

Former Germany international Thomas Mueller, in particular, has flourished under the new leadership, having previously worked with Flick on the national team.

Flick was right-hand man to Germany boss Loew for eight years from 2006, helping to lead his country to at least the semi-finals of five consecutive major tournaments.

After Germany won the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, Flick became sporting director of the German Football Association, but stepped down from the role in 2017.

A midfielder for Bayern in his playing days, he returned to Munich as part of Kovac’s coaching staff in July last year.

He took full control in November after the Croatian’s unhappy spell in charge ended with a 5-1 defeat by Eintracht Frankfurt, leaving Bayern four points off the top.