There is a small ritual before every Joan Gamper Trophy. One player walks to the middle of the pitch, takes a microphone and speaks to the Spotify Camp Nou on behalf of the squad. For the past two seasons that job belonged to Marc-Andre ter Stegen or Ronald Araujo. Both have gone, so on Wednesday night it falls to Raphinha — the first name on a new, and deliberately temporary, list of Barcelona captains.
Speaking to the club’s media before the 61st edition of the Gamper against Al Ahly, Hansi Flick set out the armband order himself, and made clear in the same breath that it is not final. “Until this happens, Rapha is the captain with Eric and Pedri,” the German said, in quotes carried by Barca Blaugranes. The squad will still hold its traditional vote — but not until the transfer window has stopped moving.
Flick’s provisional list of Barcelona captains
The reasoning is procedural rather than political. “I decided the captain, until we vote, because our team is not finished yet. I think we may also have some more players, or some players will leave. When it’s done, we will do the vote,” Flick explained. In other words, the armband hierarchy the Blaugrana carry into Wednesday is a holding position: Raphinha first, with Eric Garcia and Pedri alongside him, and Frenkie de Jong restored to the group once he is fit.
The reshuffle was forced on the club. Mundo Deportivo note that Flick was addressing the captaincy specifically because the first and second captains of last season are no longer here: ter Stegen has joined Ajax on loan, while Araujo left for Liverpool on a season-long loan. Mundo Deportivo describe the pair as the first and second captains up to now, so the top of the order was emptied in the space of a fortnight.
It also settles, at least provisionally, a question this site has been tracking all month. Reports on Monday had Raphinha in line to become first captain, and earlier in August the talk was of Eric Garcia and Gavi moving into an expanded leadership group. Flick has now confirmed three of those names on the record — while pointedly reserving the right for his players to choose differently in a few weeks’ time.
Frenkie de Jong: the third captain who cannot play
De Jong is the absence that shapes all of this. “Rapha will do [the speech], I know that Frenkie is the third captain because Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Ronald Araujo are out, but Frenkie at the moment is not available because he is injured,” Flick said. The Dutchman tore a medial collateral ligament at the 2026 World Cup and, per Mundo Deportivo, remains out indefinitely while the club sees how conservative treatment responds.
Flick used the same press conference to close down the noise around their working relationship, after reports — and a pointed on-the-record response from De Jong himself — suggested trust between the two had broken down. “My relationship with Frenkie is very good. He is a very professional player and our relationship is top,” the manager said, as reported by Barca Universal. “I always speak with him about things that happen around the team. We speak a lot. For me, he is an important player.”
Why the vote is waiting on the window
Flick’s decision to delay is a fair reading of where the squad actually is. Rodri and Joao Cancelo are both being added to the group this week, with the Rodri presentation timed for Tuesday ahead of the Gamper, and Barca Blaugranes report that the club is still trying to sign a striker before the window shuts on 31 August. Voting on a leadership group now would mean voting on a squad that does not yet exist.
So Wednesday brings the picture in miniature: a temporary first captain addressing a full house at a stadium the club has only just moved back into, with two new signings watching on and the squad still being assembled around him. Raphinha takes the microphone, Barca face Al Ahly, and then it is Elche away on Sunday for the real thing. The vote, and the permanent order, can wait.
