The permission that Barça has given Raphinha to disconnect in Porto Alegre after getting injured with the canarinha is surprising because it deviates from the usual script. Although it is easy to empathize with the boy's emotional setback, it is very jarring that a player who has repeatedly torn his hamstring starts his recovery far from the Sports City. Especially if we consider that the medical services of the club that pays him have not yet been able to examine him.

The meme of Joan Laporta dancing has already become part of popular culture. His euphoria is contagious: everything is excitement, optimism, chants borrowed from the supporters' section, macaroni and cava foam swirling at Luz de Gas. Who wouldn't want life to be like this every day? Who's the sourpuss who would choose not to have a good time? Pure hedonism, topped off with a 7-2 victory that catapulted them into the Champions League quarterfinals. "The best years of our lives" are here, and the Barcelona fans—or the 42% who voted—have overwhelmingly chosen this magnetic, fun, charismatic, and approachable man to continue pulling the club out of the hole dug by Josep Maria Bartomeu. This blank check confirms that Barça and Laporta are one and the same. "I am the state," said the absolutist French king Louis XIV. Exactly.

The bet on Hansi Flick is Joan Laporta's best government achievement. The sentiment is unanimous. The candidate clings to the charismatic, confident, and intelligent figure of the coach, behind which the management errors that have hampered the club's escape from the financial abyss it fell into due to the pandemic and Josep Maria Bartomeu can easily be hidden. Plato's allegory of the cave is very much alive, and the smile and blue eyes of the man from Heidelberg are the backdrop for this campaign. Flick is squeezing the maximum out of a squad limited by the inability to make big signings, while being forced to coexist in decision-making with... an actor without a defined role: Alejandro Echevarría. The summer of 2024 accepted the rules of the game with pleasure, but from sharpening it so much, soon there will be no pencil left.

In a matter of days, Barça has lost oxen and cowbells. The defeats at the Metropolitano and Montilivi cannot be dismissed as mere minor setbacks, as both send worrying signals with direct consequences for the team's chances of retaining two titles. Hansi Flick had been feeling uneasy for several matches. He quickly detects the mood in the dressing room, and just as he sensed at Stamford Bridge that they were on the verge of turning things around, in recent weeks he had seen that the trend was not what he hoped for. He had emphasized the players' lack of concentration in the first halves, complained about the intensity of their pressing and duels, and also highlighted the difficulty in scoring goals. Flick cannot tolerate a loss of hunger.

Hansi Flick promised Stamford Bridge that we would soon see a better version of Barça and, despite the setbacks, has finished in the Champions League Top 8That tough defeat forced the team to confront the reality of European expectations. It's undeniable that we've seen a Barça on the rise online, but to seriously compete in the most coveted race, they'll have to raise their level considerably. The first to recognize this is the coach, who, after the victory against Copenhagen, admitted that to aspire to the title, "we have to do things much, much better." He had seemed particularly angry about conceding the goal right at the start, after having spent the hours leading up to the match repeating the importance of achieving a "clean sheetThis is the great Achilles' heel of his Barça and, probably, the most obvious obstacle to prevailing when the big stages arrive. Since then, they haven't reached it again. Eleven matches, eight this season and three last, with 24 goals conceded. The calculator says the average is more than two goals per game. The persistent debate that, at the beginning of the season, had arisen around the risks of playing with such an advanced defensive line, with expert voices like Thierry Henry irritating him so much, has been closed. Strong in possession and even more relentless in pressing after losing it. Imaginative, daydreaming, falling madly in love without restraint, enjoying without fear. Why not?

Gil Manzano is the kind of referee whose demeanor speaks for itself: haughty, arrogant, unapproachable, and with a pathological tendency to send off anyone who's been getting on his nerves. If, on top of that, they pair him with Del Cerro Grande in the VAR booth, they have a very promising duo that will test the patience of even the most level-headed player in the dressing room, even if he's as cool as ice and his name is Frenkie de Jong. With the appointment of this star-studded pairing, the Technical Committee of Referees made a clear statement of intent directed at Barça during a very complicated week for Florentino Pérez. Conspiracy theories are generally tiresome, but in this particular case, it's very difficult to believe the choice was a coincidence. The Barça dressing room knew all this when they took to the pitch at Anoeta.

Hansi Flick is a man of his word. At Stamford Bridge, still reeling from the 3-0 defeat, he delivered a positive message to reaffirm confidence in his work: "We'll soon see a different Barça, I can promise you that." And so it was. The victory against Atlético de MadridThe first win against a top team this season is very significant because it reinforces the manager's position and shows the players the way forward. He'd been saying for weeks that by clearing the infirmary of key players, the team's level would rise. From Flick's dejected image after the lackluster victory against Alavés, we went to euphoria in just 72 hours. And who was there to embrace him immediately? Raphinha. His number one ally in pressing, commitment, mentality, and attacking depth. Being able to have him back, along with Pedri's magnificent magic in the starting eleven, means the team suddenly surpasses twenty levels of the video game.

International breaks are a headache that, in a World Cup year, turns into a nightmare. Clubs tremble because they lose control of their players. Everything changes: the routines of physical preparation and training, the management of effort during matches, and much more. And to this disruption, we must add the players' legitimate desire to secure a place in the most prestigious competition. This means they aren't always entirely honest about their feelings or how they should pace themselves on the pitch. They don't want to fall behind in a crucial race: the superstars, to prove they are undisputedly the best; those fighting for a place, to leave no room for doubt. All of this exacerbates the already strained injury lists.

Brain about to explode, aching body, dizziness, and a desperate desire for it to be over. This is what it feels like to have a hangover after a night of excess. Barça's situation isn't quite like Bradley Cooper and his friends meeting Mike Tyson and losing a tooth or two, but it's clear they're now paying the price for the footballing spectacle that was last season. Aside from the disappointment caused by Acerbi in Milan, the 2024-25 season was like an erotic dream: Hansi Flick's team performed beyond expectations and shattered the mold with their daring style. Physically and mentally, they pushed themselves beyond their limits, and now all the problems are surfacing. The decompression is evident, and The physical decline is filling the infirmary. in an alarming way, while officially, at the club, they say they're not worried. Let them fiddle while the water keeps coming in.

It is obvious that this season has not started as Hansi Flick would have liked, beyond the irregular football sensations. We come from a summer full of inconveniences that he has faced with the usual stoic patience: the avoidable war against Ter Stegen, the poor organization of a tour in which he was more important to keep Enric Masip and Albert Luque happy that the proper training of the players, the conflict between Gavi and Fermín, the desire of some detractors (from within the club itself) to get rid of the second, the abrupt departure of a key piece like Iñigo Martínez without the option of a replacement, continue going to the market as the poor cousin of the big players in Europe, register in extremis with the blow of endorsement so that the phantom levers drown the fair play financial or even playing like Johan Cruyff for not having rented Montjuïc with more foresight. Flick's smile is priceless.

When Francesco Acerbi cruelly ended the dream of reaching the Munich final, frustration took hold of Barcelona fans. The opinion also took hold that if Hansi Flick's Barça had made it, they would have had a chance of winning it, no matter how much Luis Enrique's all-powerful PSG faced them. The flavor of last season was special, magical. That's why the procession celebrating the titles had a dreamlike quality, as if a harbinger of what was to come. At the start of Flick's second year, hopes are poured into the Champions League, Because this time it should be. The Catalans finished the season with sky-high self-esteem, a justified credit to the coach and the players who raised the bar beyond their capabilities. And now what they want to know is whether, once and for all, Barça can be crowned the best team in Europe.

Newcastle was everything Hansi Flick had envisioned and the game plan worked out perfectlyThe victory at St. James' Park is important to him because he understands it's a step forward in the maturity required to aspire to everything. The lesson from San Siro isn't just brewing in the locker room, but serves as a starting point for growth and dreaming of the most precious success. That's why it's important to see how players learn to react to difficulties, such as England's goal against them before injury time: this is growing up, and it's what the German is focused on. He's not interested in raising his head because the month of May is now as far away as Jupiter.Step by step", "no excusesand let's be clear. Flick is probably the best coach Barça has had since Pep Guardiola.

Considering that we are part of a sleeping society, it is gratifying to see how there are still people who mobilize for a cause and successfully torpedoes a top-level sporting competition like the Vuelta. Not all is lost. Using critical thinking, protesting, and demonstrating have become concepts vintage, because we have been reduced to what the system wants: to be instruments of consumption of products and ideas at its service. That's why we can sit in a crowded cove while we do scroll between a possible Barça signing, a discounted shirt, and a cadaverous child dying of hunger in the Gaza Strip. Unperturbed, we raised our gaze and asked the couple: "What would you rather eat? Fideuá or paella?" We have the capacity for indignation of a tender Jewish woman.

It was a Tuesday in June—the 17th, to be exact. The first wave of heat was roasting the hundreds of workers on the Camp Nou construction site. Cranes, cement blocks, scrap metal and questions. A few meters away, in the 1899 Auditorium, Joan Laporta was addressing the Blaugrana Senate, an archaic body redolent of Brummel and naiveté. In that uncritical context, the Barça president stated that the club had already returned to the famous 1:1 rule of the fair play financial and fueled the signing of Nico Williams (!). Not only did his nose not grow, but his closest collaborators argued that he had lied to the group of nonagenarians because the reinstatement of the 1:1 rule was practically a given. Weeks later, Laporta would participate in a campaign to announce, with great fanfare, his return to Camp Nou on the day of the Gamper. The potatoes, bravas, please.

Until recently, whenever Barça signed a player, a presentation event was held where, in addition to signing the contract and taking photos with the president, he would discuss his aspirations. There was even a period when journalistic questions could be asked of the key players: not only the player, but also those responsible for transfer policy. This is why former director of professional sports Albert Soler was questioned about Coutinho's exorbitant price in 2018, or, in the summer of 2023, during a tour of the United States, former director of football Mateu Alemany gave details of what Barça had paid Girona to sign Oriol Rome. Low cost. This, Oriol Romeu's in Los Angeles (!), is the latest press conference presentation Barça has held for a signing – Hansi Flick aside.

Marc-André ter Stegen is the last vestige of the template who won the Champions League in Berlin ten years ago. He is also one of the only three survivors of the contract renewals with deferrals that Josep Maria Bartomeu carried out in secret and treacherously before resigning in October 2020, behind the backs of the dressing room led by Leo Messi. Currently the first captain by seniority, he is the archeological figure of a team that collapsed between Anfield and Lisbon and began to rise with Xavi's La Liga, in which he was key between the sticks. At the top of Barça, legitimately, they believe that the time has come for him to say goodbye so they can look forward to a goalkeeper for the future: they have spoken about it in board meetings and in close circles with journalists. Officially, the message is that they do not want to force him to leave, but once Joan Garcia was signed There's no need to swallow the vegetables by making an airplane with your fork. pressing Ter Stegen is infinite and inelegant. Frenkie de Jong could beat him. give advice on how to approach this type of campaigns, also present on the unbearable social media. Every summer, someone is targeted to get him to jump ship, and the Dutchman, now on the verge of renewing—what a thing!—is an expert. Ter Stegen signed—already with Joan Laporta, two years ago—an extension until 2028. One small detail is not insignificant: he did so again with deferrals, Bartomeu-style. Therefore, colloquially speaking, the club must pay him a fortune, and he holds the upper hand. For now, he's already made it clear that he's convinced he'll stay at Barça. The conflict is already brewing and won't be easy to resolve, because the Blaugrana club also needs the German to leave to facilitate Joan Garcia's registration.

A year ago, the imminent signing of Kylian Mbappé by Real Madrid was perceived as a tragedy at Barça, and some were already internalizing a worrying "there's nothing we can do." Needless to say, the club celebrated by making room for the supposed sixteenth-eared trophy in the trophy cabinet. In the bar comparison, Barça was coming off the loser: with such a young team and such a fragile economy... what could Barça do to change its destiny? Well, fate has rewritten its destiny, beyond the winning mind of Hansi Flick, a genius of just seventeen years old who wants to conquer the world. The Blaugrana have already taken two titles from Florentino Perez's team, are close to virtually winning La Liga right under their noses, and the Champions League throne is still within reach. thanks, in large part, to Lamine Yamal.

The German national team's calendar posted at the 2014 training camp in Brazil is on display at the German Football Museum in Dortmund. It was updated daily by Hansi Flick, then Joachim Löw's right-hand man. He used a marker to write the schedules, plans, matches, and goalscorers on the road to winning the World Cup after defeating Messi's Argentina. The countdown motto, which ends with a smiling face drawn by Flick with the word "Best of the World Cup" in the last box, is: Worldmeister [world champion], sums up the coach's philosophy: "A good start requires motivation; a good finish requires discipline." In the Barça locker room, the same schedule is being followed, with dreams intact. The level of performance on display demonstrates that the squad has that winning mentality burned into them. That's why they hardly celebrated. the ticket to the semis after losing; that's why Flick had to cheer them on.

Hansi Flick's Barça are making steady progress toward their dream of a treble: a dream justified by the football they display. The Metropolitan's lesson in maturity explains the Barça team's evolution to a level that seemed utopian a few months ago. The matches leave us with an aftertaste we haven't had since Leo Messi laughed happily on the pitch. Barça had remained frozen in the famous "It's not enough for us"The end that he is going to arrive: a coach from an other galaxy, with a natural discourse inside and outside the locker room, intel·ligent and with the idees very clear. The team is a coet propelled to the infinite: he does not remember the one who is lost, finally when things become complicated, the Germans know how to transfer the serenity of who You have a secret instruction manual. Everyone wants to be part of the phenomenon, demonstrate their talent and embrace their peers. Flick is the best that has happened to Barça. tots els déus perquè es no constipin mai–. If we get more or less titles, just for the one we live in, Barça has guaranteed Flick's bet. This decision is, in the long run, the best of President Joan Laporta's second term. Enmig of an erratic management full of gaps, knowing how to get what matters most in a football club causes all the mistakes made to blur, buried by the seductive magic of the ball. There is no calm day in the offices, but it is very easy for the culé to dissociate and say: "Don't get angry with the fuss that I don't understand and let me enjoy it in peace." Flick's sparkling figure eclipses everything: the club begins and ends in his blue gaze, clean, intense and determined.

Whenever March 8th comes around, men, who are a small part of the female ocean of sports journalism, are asked to go to talks or debates for which we are normally never called. It's our day! We have to give ourselves the voice that we don't usually have to, strategically, clean up the image of the preponderance of women giving their opinions everywhere. When more than three men coincide in front of a microphone doing a football analysis, it is an extreme modernization. At least, we have reached 2025 making female bosses, programme directors and editors realise that, even if it is for hygiene reasons, it is something ugly that there is not a minimum presence of men. Until very recently, these women who occupy positions of power by system, did not see that a corporate photo without any men could grate.