Few footballers at Barça have a recent history as unique as Fermín López's. Perhaps the closest is Gerard Martín, who went from Cornellà to playing in a Champions League semi-final under Hansi Flick. In the case of the Andalusian attacking midfielder, the credit must be given, aside from the player himself and former youth academy director Jordi Roura, to Xavi Hernández. The former Barça coach was the one who placed the most faith in Fermín when he was practically out of the club – he went on loan to Linares – without even having made his debut with the first team. "Xavi is his mentor and, with Flick, little by little, he ended up earning a place," Roura said. He praised the footballer's father in a conversation with ARA"We are very grateful to all the Barça fans and all Catalans for how much they love him," he added.

Barça, without fanfare, has done its job and has beaten Elche (3-1) With goals from Lamine Yamal, Ferran Torres, and Marcus Rashford. Here are some immediate highlights of the match:

Fermín López was once again, as usual, the competitive soul of Barça, and defended the Barça honor. in a classic that moves the Catalans away from the lead. The Andalusian, with another goal, tied the game for the moment and kept Barça's hopes alive. However, it wasn't enough to salvage any points at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Hansi Flick is taking advantage of this break to mend Barça's shoes after a week in which the team has been stripped bare, both defensively and offensively. The defeats against PSG and Sevilla, while not a complete disaster, They have set off certain alarm bells in the coaching staff and in the sports management. The German has already spoken about "egos and collective effort," as well as "structure," while Deco warned this week in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio that without "work," Barça is a much more vulnerable team: "We're not that good." The demands of rivals like PSG, the current Champions League champions, and the avalanche of injuries that have weighed down the squad have not allowed the coach to fine-tune a starting eleven with consistency.

Although the active Laporta sector on social media often points to Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga, as the main culprit for Barça's woes (not least due to the difficulty in registering players in the last transfer window), sources close to President Laporta himself assure ARA that the current relationship between the Catalan club and La Liga "is good." The person in charge of keeping the news in Madrid is Alejandro Echevarría, the unofficial vice president of Barça, but "Jan also has a good relationship with Tebas because he wants the best for the club," they make clear.

Hansi Flick expressed his discontent in the press conference prior to the La Liga debut against Mallorca for not having all his players registered. A week ago, when asked about Casadó and Fermín, he made it clear that he was counting on both and was especially emphatic about the Andalusian: "It will be a tough season and we need players of Fermín's quality. He did very well last season and at the start of this one. I'm happy with him."

Barça is preparing to consider a multi-million-dollar offer from Chelsea to sell Fermín López this last week of the transfer window. The proposed amount from the London club, one of the richest in Europe, could exceed €50 million. The club, according to the newspaper Sport and The Athletic and ARA has been able to confirm, will evaluate these days whether to accept it to put an end once and for all to its problems with the salary cap and register at once the three players who are still to be registered in the League: Gerard Martín, Wojciech Szczęsny and Roony Bardghji. The transfer window will close next Monday, September 1st, at 11:50 PM. That's more than enough time for offices across Europe to be buzzing.

If someone had told Fermín López three years ago that he would receive the Joan Gamper Trophy Best Player award on August 10, 2025, he would have dismissed them as a madman. On August 19, three years ago, Barça announced the Andalusian midfielder's loan to Linares. After losing a place in the reserve team, it was time to move abroad to develop in semi-professional football. On that day, few could have imagined that he would end up triumphing in the Blaugrana shirt. With a double against Como (5-0), Fermín showed that he wants to be a starter. With Frenkie de Jong and Pedri covering the base of the midfield, there remains one position in which Hansi Flick will have to choose between three options: Gavi, Dani Olmo – now recovered after an overload – and the player from El Campillo (Huelva). For now, the attacking midfielder has played 78 minutes in which he once again showed off one of his greatest strengths: his goal-scoring instinct.

Fermín López closed out the season at San Mamés with a remarkable performance. In fact, he provided the assist for Lewandowski, for the first goal of the Pole's brace. Thus, the midfielder born in El Campillo (Huelva) capped off a strong end to the season. Although his breakthrough into the first team would be inexplicable without the help of Xavi Hernández, Fermín has also managed to convince Hansi Flick. His end of the season has earned him a place among the six Barça players called up for the Spanish national team. However, he will not be playing for the Spanish U-21 team, with whom he was instrumental in winning the gold medal at last year's Paris Olympic Games.

"Xavi, I arrived late because people stopped me on the metro, forgive me," Ansu Fati told Xavi Martín, looking bewildered by what had just happened to him. He was returning to La Masia from his parents' house – that day he was due to make his Barça first-team debut, at just 16 years old. "I went to my office, grabbed the front pages of the newspapers and told him: 'They stopped you for that. And from now on, you have to change your habits because you're a well-known person,'" Xavi Martín, director of La Masía between 2019 and 2021, recalls to ARA. He was also a member of the Barça squad with whom Martín coincided during his time as director of La Masia. The list includes Lamine Yamal, Cubarsí, Balde, Casadó, Marc Bernal, Fermín and Gavi. He still keeps in touch with many of them. The latter two were at La Masia because their families lived outside of Catalonia, but the club also believes the Blaugrana home is the best place for players experiencing difficult situations. This was the case with Lamine Yamal. "The decision was based on his situation from a family perspective. There could be more dysfunctional families or those who lived in difficult areas. There were players who needed academic, nutritional, sleep, and rest monitoring," Martín explained during the interview at his home in Vilassar de Mar.

"At that time I didn't know where to find most of the countries we went to. These are experiences I will never have. They are unrepeatable. At 15 I had already travelled more than my entire family," admits Eric Vega (Masquefa, 2003). With Barça they travelled all over the world – to Colombia, the United States, Japan and all over Europe – but there is one trip that has remained etched in their memory above all the rest: in Senegal, in the winter of 2017, alongside Alejandro Balde, Marc Casadó, Fermín López and Xavi Simons, another of the talents of La Mas. They were the U19 A team. "It's an unforgettable trip," he adds. He remembers looking up where Senegal was on a map at home, with his parents. "I knew it was an African country, but I had no idea where it was." Vega has just signed for Sabadell B, in the Third Federation, after months without being able to enjoy football due to two injuries to his left knee.