Hansi & Heynckes: Hund Lovers

A lot of people will agree that Hansi Flick draws a lot of similarities with one of Bayern Munich’s best coaches in history, Jupp Heynckes. Under the two coaches, Bayern have played fast, attractive, attacking football, and have enjoyed some silverware as well. Moreover, both coaches have been immensely popular with the players, with little, if any, talk of rifts in the team under their management.

And just when you thought you couldn’t find more similarities, here’s another one: both are dog lovers.

While his players got a day off after the win against Freiburg, Flick was Säbener Straße today with some welcome guests: his wife Silke and their lovely labrador retriever. While we don’t know much about Hansi’s canine friend, we do know that it is a cream-colored labrador, and that it was cute enough to attract the attention of a passing Ivan Perisic.

This labrador is not the first dog that the Flicks have owned. Back in the 1980s, when Hansi was still a player, he and Silke owned a collie named Sherry.

Now, of course, every Bayern fan knows the story of Heynckes’ legendary (and very fluffy) German shepherd Cando, who famously approved his owner’s return to Munich in 2017 by barking twice. It was thanks to Cando that Bayern were able to finish 2017-18 successfully, with a Bundesliga title and trips to the DFB-Pokal Finale and the Champions League semifinals. Sadly, Cando passed away last year at the ripe old age of fourteen.

Here’s hoping that Cando has a great successor in Hansi’s labrador! Who knows, that labrador might win Bayern a treble one day...