Hansi Flick's Countdown: 11 Days to Prepare Barça for La Liga

Hansi Flick’s first real race against time at FC Barcelona has begun. With the World Cup only just in the rear-view mirror, the new Barça coach has 11 days to turn a staggered, travel-worn squad into a team ready to start the 2026/2027 La Liga season.

Because so many of their players went deep into the tournament, both Barça and Real Madrid have been granted a delayed start. While most of the league gets going earlier, the two giants begin a week later, and the calendar wastes no time throwing them back into the grind.

Real Madrid head to Catalonia first, visiting Espanyol on August 22. Barça follow a day later, away to Elche on August 23. No easing in. No gentle home opener. Flick’s men go straight on the road.

That leaves the German coach with roughly a week and a half to get key figures like Lamine and Pedri up to speed after their summer exertions. Their minutes will be carefully managed, their workloads monitored, every training session a balance between recovery and readiness.

Some of their Spain teammates, though, are already ahead of them.

Gavi was the first of Luis de la Fuente’s World Cup-winning group to walk back through the doors. He returned after starting Spain’s opening 0-0 draw with Cabo Verde in Group H, only to lose his left-wing starting spot to Atletico Madrid’s Alex Baena for the remainder of the tournament. That personal frustration has turned into fuel. He has been back at work before many of his club colleagues have even unpacked.

The trickle soon became a steady flow. Eric Garcia and goalkeeper Joan Garcia reported on August 9, joined by Anthony Gordon and Jules Kounde, both fresh from deep runs in North America with England and France respectively. Their World Cup ended in a wild third-place playoff, a 10-goal spectacle where Gordon and Kounde went head-to-head and the Three Lions edged it 6-4 thanks to a Bukayo Saka hat trick.

Those extra minutes in high-stakes games bring sharpness, but also fatigue. Flick must decide how much to lean on them straight away, how quickly to integrate them into his pressing schemes and positional play.

For Kounde, there is another layer of pressure. His hold on the right-back spot is no longer guaranteed. This season, he faces a serious challenge from 2007 La Masia graduate Xavi Espart, a product of the club’s academy who knows the positional demands of that flank inside out.

Eleven days, a scattered squad, and a new internal battle at right back. Flick’s Barcelona era starts not with a grand unveiling, but with a stopwatch ticking loudly in the background.