The Barcelona squad for Elche landed on Sunday morning with one name missing, and it was the name everybody had spent the weekend arguing about. Alejandro Balde is not on the plane to Alicante. There is no injury and no request from the player — according to Mundo Deportivo’s Sergi Sole, it is a straight technical call from Hansi Flick, and it lands squarely on a left-back whose future has been the story of the week.
Barca begin the defence of their title at the Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero tonight at 21:30 CEST, chasing a third consecutive LaLiga crown. It is technically Matchday 2 — their opener against Athletic Club was pushed back under the post-World Cup rest rule — but it is the first football that counts. The 23 Flick has picked tell you a fair amount about where his summer has got to: three of the new signings are in, six academy players are in, and three of the club’s most talked-about exit candidates are not.
Why Balde is not in the Barcelona squad for Elche
Flick had already set the tone. At Saturday’s press conference he said Balde’s situation would not be clear until the end of the window and challenged the 22-year-old to go and win his place back. Balde’s answer, as reported on Saturday, was that he intended to stay and fight for it. Leaving him out of the matchday squad altogether is a considerably louder message than leaving him out of the eleven.
Barca Universal report that Balde was among the first players off the training ground on Saturday and reads the decision as a challenge; Cadena SER, via the same outlet, say he still has no intention of leaving. Barca Blaugranes note that Marc Casado and Hector Fort are also missing and are likewise expected to move before the deadline.
The market around him has moved too. Barca Universal put the club valuation at around €40m at the very least, and Record, via Barca Universal, report that Benfica have pulled out because they will not go beyond roughly €20m — leaving Aston Villa as the live suitor and Manchester United watching from a distance in case he becomes properly available. Mundo Deportivo count ten days of the window still to run. We looked at what Barca would do with the money on Sunday morning.
Who is in: three signings and six from the academy
The good news is considerable. Anthony Gordon, Karim Adeyemi and Joao Cancelo are all in the 23, having been registered by LaLiga between Friday and Saturday. Adeyemi can make his Spanish league debut tonight; Cancelo goes straight into a squad he only joined permanently on Thursday.
Behind them, Flick has rewarded a strong pre-season from the filial. Eder Aller, Alvaro Cortes, Jordi Pesquer, Xavi Espart, Brian Farinas and Hamza Abdelkarim all travel — six from the filial, a reminder that when Flick talks about competition he means it. Pesquer, 17, is the pointed inclusion given who has been left behind.
Rodri waits until Monday
The one absence that is not a message is Rodri. Flick flagged on Saturday that the €60m signing would not be called up, having carried only a light training load through pre-season. He is due to join the group properly on Monday — three days before Barca’s first league game at the Spotify Camp Nou, the rearranged opener against Athletic Club on Thursday 27 August at 21:00.
Tonight is about getting the season started; Thursday is the first league night back at the Spotify Camp Nou, and the one Rodri has been pointed at all along.
A squad list is usually the least interesting document a club publishes. This one is not. Flick has picked a group full of new arrivals and teenagers, left out three players who are all expected to move before the deadline, and handed the loudest possible answer to a question he was asked a day earlier. Our full preview of Elche v Barcelona is here — and the line-up just got a little easier to guess.
Squad details reported by Mundo Deportivo, Barca Blaugranes and Barca Universal, 23 August 2026.
