Jules Koundé's Battle for Barcelona's Starting Spot
Jules Koundé is living a new reality this season. For the first time since Hansi Flick walked through the door, the France international is no longer a near-automatic starter, and that shift has dragged him into a different kind of battle: one fought long after the main session ends and the dressing room door closes.
According to Catalan outlet Sport, Flick has not treated Koundé as a priority since June. Inside the club, the sporting department were prepared to listen to offers in the summer, and, crucially, the defender himself was no longer against the idea of a move if the right proposal arrived. The certainty that once surrounded his place has gone.
The early weeks of the campaign have underlined the change. His level dipped last season and, in recent games, others have simply done better than him at right-back. Competition has stopped being theoretical and turned into something very visible on the teamsheet.
Koundé is fully aware of it. He knows he is not at his peak and that any route back into Flick’s trusted core will have to be earned, not assumed. What nobody inside the club questions is his response. Physically, he has always pushed himself to the limit. Now, with his role shrinking, that instinct has only intensified.
When first-team training wraps up and most of his team-mates disappear down the tunnel, Koundé stays out on the pitches at the training ground. Sport report that he works on with fitness coaches and physiotherapists, adding tailored drills and conditioning blocks to the workload the club already sets.
His answer to a reduced status is blunt: work more. More time in the gym. Longer days at the sports city. Extra sessions piled on top of an already demanding schedule, all with one aim – to convince Flick he can still be the reference point on that right side.
This is not a sudden reinvention. Even during what was arguably the best spell of his career, when major European clubs such as Manchester City were tracking him closely, Koundé followed the same path: extra hours, extra detail, extra effort.
The stage has changed, the hierarchy has shifted, but his response has not. Now the question is simple: will that relentless work be enough to drag him back to the heart of Flick’s plans, or will this be the season his Barcelona story takes a different turn?
