Hansi Flick's third project began a month ago, when the World Cup semifinals still had to be played. Resigned, the German saw that he would have to do a good part of the preseason without the backbone of his team, since at that time up to ten players were still competing in the tournament in the United States and, therefore, would take a few weeks to return.

Rodrigo Hernández, Rodri, will be a Barça player. The blaugrana club reached a preliminary agreement this Sunday with Manchester City for the signing of the Madrid-born midfielder. The operation will be official during the week, once all the documentation has been drafted and signed. The intention is that Rodri, who will sign for four seasons, can be presented as early as Wednesday during the Joan Gamper Trophy, according to blaugrana sources.

Barça has left good feelings in the friendly match played in Basel, which they won 2-5. The important thing was not the score, but to see how the team reacted against an opponent who, although not of the highest footballing level, is more seasoned and took the match very seriously. Adeyemi, with a goal and an assist, was one of the protagonists of a match that also served for the young Bisiwu to debut with a brace.

Just as a few months ago Barcelonism celebrated the start of summer without restrictions in the fair play financial, the club is reaching the end of the transfer window with a degree of nervousness because it has not yet been able to complete the squad. The technical secretariat, led by Deco, has done its homework with departures and has fulfilled the coach's wishes by strengthening the wings. But there is still one position to cover, and not just any position: that of the center forward, which must be reinforced no matter what. The departures of Lewandowski and Ferran Torres mean losing forty goals compared to last season, and the figure rises to 54 if Rashford, who will not renew his loan, is also included. On the other hand, the arrival of Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi only brings 27, half, considering that neither of them is a specialist in the position of new.

Barça and Paris Saint-Germain have reached an agreement for the sale of Ferran Torres. The forward from Foios will change clubs this summer for a figure that will be around 50 million euros, according to confirmed Blaugrana sources. The agreement is total and will be official at the weekend, once all contracts have been drafted and signed. Thus, Ferran, who has already trained separately from his teammates these days, will be released from his obligations to the Blaugrana team and will take a plane to Paris in the coming hours to undergo a medical examination.

The life of Miquel Travé (La Seu d'Urgell, 2000) has not changed one bit since he was proclaimed world champion of canoeing in July, becoming the first Catalan and Spaniard to win Olympic slalom gold. Calm and disciplined, he maintains a routine of training six hours a day. In fact, he postpones the video conference with ARA by a few minutes precisely because one of the sessions has run long.

You don't need to be close friends with Florentino Pérez to know that Real Madrid's president doesn't take criticism well. Two blank years are too many for a leader accustomed to success who had recently been pointed out for poor management in transfer policy. With a serious face in the stands and after the umpteenth change on the bench, Florentino slammed his fist on the table, calling an absurd press conference – the first he had held in eleven years – to announce elections. Also for the first time in two decades, the leader had an opponent in front of him – until now, he had won them as the sole candidate. And once re-elected, he seemed to put the pedal to the metal with an aggressive and authoritarian transfer policy, where he not only wanted to strengthen his Madrid, but also wanted to annoy Barça, the rival to beat in the Spanish league in the last two years.

A goal in extra time of a World Cup final. The winning goal. A goal and a title that is about to change Ferran Torres' history. Surely without this goal, the footballer would have had a less eventful summer and who knows if with fewer suitors. But the fact is that the player from Foios has become one of the most popular players in the Spanish national team and, also, a strong candidate to leave Barça. So much so that the interest of Paris Saint-Germain has grown in recent weeks to become a priority objective. For the moment, nothing is done, but the probabilities that the forward, who is still on vacation, will not set foot in the blaugrana Sports City again are increasingly high.

Barça was not really aware of having a problem with Leo Messi until May 2021. Joan Laporta had returned to the blaugrana presidency a couple of months earlier and the leader's main objective was to renew the contract of the Rosario forward, which expired at the end of that season. "This is dragging on and it's not good news," predicted one of the president's most trusted people at the time. He was absolutely right. The negotiations with Messi to find an alternative contract, the talks with La Liga to achieve fair play, the failed agreement with CVC, the internal pressures from guarantors who did not see a stratospheric renewal clearly... It was a sum of many things that imploded on that fateful Thursday, August 5th. It has been five years since Barça officially announced that Messi would not continue as blaugrana.

Remodeling the Camp Nou from top to bottom was not only aimed at repairing possible damage to a stadium built in 1957. The world of football has changed a lot since then and stadiums are no longer just meeting points where one goes to watch a match every two weeks. They are business spaces open 365 days a year and are commercially exploited beyond competition. UEFA and FIFA have also modified their regulations. Football can be played almost anywhere as long as the pitch has the regulation dimensions. But the big tournaments, the big finals, are reserved for the best stadiums. And the old Camp Nou had become obsolete.

Barça, Ajax and Ter Stegen reached a preliminary agreement at the end of June for the goalkeeper played this season on loan in the Netherlands. But when it came to drafting the contracts, the problems began. The famous small print. First, it was the distribution of the footballer's salary, and then a series of fiscal matters. All of this has been slowing down what seemed to be an imminent loan. Four weeks later, the reality is that Ter Stegen is still in Barcelona and training at the Ciutat Esportiva under Hansi Flick's orders as if he were just another member of the squad.

With only one year left on his contract, without a formal renewal offer, with PSG's interest in the background and doubts due to intermittent performance, Ferran Torres was included in the Spanish national team's squad for the 2026 World Cup. Except for the first game, in which he started against Cape Verde, he has been a substitute in the rest. He has always played, but he hadn't scored. And so it went until the final against Argentina. Football history is full of players who score decisive goals when they are not going through a good personal moment. Ferran is the latest example. The forward from Foios broke his bad streak with a goal in the first minute of the second half of extra time. The winning goal. A goal, his first of the tournament, which meant a "great release" after being "heavily criticized throughout the World Cup."}The winning goal. A goal, his first of the tournament, which meant a "great release" after being "heavily criticized throughout the World Cup".

Four goals in the first half and six in the second. Ten in total. The match for third and fourth place in the 2026 World Cup was chaotic, more like an exhibition match than a tournament that is supposed to be the highest expression of football on the planet. Because England went into the break winning no less than 0-4, but at times in the second half it seemed they could lose to a reborn France. In the end, the English ended up winning 4-6.

The security protocol in New York State in case of an electrical storm is very strict and prevents any outdoor activity if there are less than 30 seconds between a lightning strike and the accompanying thunder. Furthermore, activities cannot resume until at least half an hour has passed since the last thunder. For this reason, the Spanish team was unable to hold its last training session before the World Cup final. The team coached by Luis de la Fuente could not step onto the pitch at the Melanie Lane Training Ground in New Jersey and had to settle for an activation session in the gym. Argentina had better luck. In their case, they only had to postpone training by 45 minutes at the Red Bull Academy in Morristown: it rained on them, but they were able to train without further impediments.

Football historians recall that Real Madrid truly became great in the 1950s thanks to the European Cup. That newly created tournament became successful at a time when the Old Continent was still rebuilding after the Second World War. It was also a time when the Spanish national team was better known for its failures than for its successes — with the exception of the '64 Eurocup, held precisely in Spain—. So it suited the Franco regime well that the Madrid club, winner of the first five editions, became an ambassador for the country internationally. It was still a winning team that, in the domestic competition of the First Division, would also rack up League titles.

A goal from Oyarzabal, a penalty, and another from Pedro Porro, allowed the Spanish team to defeat France and reach the World Cup final. For the second time in its history, La Roja will play the title match, and will do so after demonstrating, like in 2010, that a great generation of footballers is not enough, but that the key to success is for all the stars to play for the team. A very young generation of fearless players who are not afraid of anything, not even what, on paper, was the deadliest attack of all. It turns out that France was unable to score and it is Spain who reaches the title match with immaculate defensive statistics: they have only conceded one goal in the entire competition.

When Hansi Flick signed for Barça in the summer of 2024, the German coach knew perfectly well that the club's economic situation was delicate and that top-tier signings could not be afforded. A year later, he was greatly disappointed when he learned that he would have to wait another season to be able to strengthen the squad, as delays in the return to Camp Nou conditioned the fair play financier. The third one was the right one and Barça faces a summer without more restrictions than those of its budget. Once Anthony Gordon has been signed for 70 million plus variables, the next target is Karim Adeyemi, a Borussia Dortmund forward, who, if nothing goes wrong, will be a Blaugrana this very week. The German club has already admitted that the footballer is not training and has permission to negotiate his departure.

The Spanish team is already in the World Cup semi-finals. Suffering, dominating possession but struggling to break down Belgium's defense, Lamine Yamal's team and company eventually defeated the Belgian side (2-1) with an early goal from Fabián and a late one from Mikel Merino just before the end of regulation time. The red team's dream continues despite the team failing to dispel doubts, unable to complete a flawless 90-minute match. The next hurdle is France, with whom they will compete for a place in the final.

With the numbers in hand, Lamine Yamal is far from the offensive contributions of other stars of this World Cup. For now, the Barça winger scores a single goal in the tournament and has not played any assistance. Of course, with the exception of the match against Portugal, he has not been able to play all the possible minutes. In the debut against Cape Verde he was a substitute and only played 19 minutes. Against Saudi Arabia he was a starter and was substituted at halftime after scoring. Against Uruguay, 76 minutes; and against Austria, 85. With the 90 minutes of the round of 16 against Portugal, he adds up to 315 minutes out of a possible 450. 70%. A low percentage if you consider that the top scorers (Leo Messi, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé) exceed 90% participation.

Michel Sánchez was key for Marc-André ter Stegen would go to Girona in January. It was well known that Barça was looking for an exit for him and that the goalkeeper did not see himself leaving on loan. But the coach, through the sporting director Quique Cárcel, insisted until he received the go-ahead. It is an unknown what would have happened if Ter Stegen had not been injured and had been able to complete the second half of the season with the Montilivi team. Perhaps they would not have been relegated. The only thing known for sure is that Michel has not lost confidence in the Mönchengladbach goalkeeper, to the point that he has asked for him again to join Ajax, a club he has been coaching since this summer.