German soccer coach Hansi Flick Flick offers rare private insights in his upcoming book. He talks about his wife Silke’s breast cancer diagnosis. “I was scared like I had never felt before.”
International football coach Hansi Flick (57) reveals, among other things, a serious private problem in his book “Im Moment – Über Success, the beauty of the game and what really matters in life” (riva, 224 pages, 20 euros), which will be published on 20 September Fate struck his family after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa: his wife Silke was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Hansi Flick: “I was more afraid than ever before”
“Silke was diagnosed with breast cancer,” says excerpts previously presented by “Bild”. “I was scared like I had never felt before. Being there for her and her kids was even more important than usual,” Flick and her co-writer Jonathan Sierck continue. The football coach received a one-off support from the DFB during this phase, he was able to “retire for a certain period”.
“I still admire my wife for the strength and inner peace with which she coped with a difficult situation. I lay in bed with tears in my eyes much more often than she did,” admits Flick. This phase of his life “taught him humility and gratitude.” The reflection of death and one’s own transience changes something in you, says the Heidelberg native. “We are blind to death […] often skillfully. However, in my experience, dealing with the fact that we’re not here forever leads to a more mindful way of life,” says Flick.
“There are things that are bigger and more important than football”
This extreme experience changed him. “Since this stage of my life, I have seen encounters and relationships between people in a different light and I never take them for granted,” explains Hansi Flick. And he no longer takes athletic losses so personally. “There are things bigger and more important than football.”
Hansi and Silke Flick have been married since 1987, and they have two children and two grandchildren.