The scoreline on Wednesday night was the least interesting thing about it. Barça beat Al Ahly 2-1 at the Spotify Camp Nou to lift the Joan Gamper Trophy, Hamza Abdelkarim and Raphinha got the goals, and the squad was presented to the Camp Nou for the first time this season. But the detail that will shape the next nine months was written on the team sheet, in the back four: Jules Koundé in the middle, and Eric Garcia out on the right touchline.
Twenty-four hours earlier that would have looked like a pre-season experiment. It is not. Speaking in the mixed zone afterwards, Garcia confirmed that Hansi Flick has already had the conversation with him.
“The manager told me that this year he’d like to try me out there. It’s a position I’m happy in,” the defender said, in comments carried by Mundo Deportivo. “I’ve already told him that wherever I play, I’ll be happy. I feel comfortable at full-back.”
The right-back argument, finally settled
Four days before the LaLiga opener away at Elche, Flick appears to have resolved one of the longest-running debates in this squad. Koundé has spent season after season filling in at right-back for Barça while France deploy him differently — a tension we have tracked all year. Now the German has simply swapped the two men round.
Mundo Deportivo report that the internal thinking was straightforward: if no new centre-back arrived this summer, Koundé would move inside. None did. Ronald Araújo left for Liverpool on a season-long loan, and the No. 4 shirt is still hanging in the dressing room unclaimed. Koundé, remember, joined from Sevilla in 2022 as one of the best central defenders in Spain. Against Al Ahly he partnered Gerard Martín there, with Andreas Christensen rested after a heavy pre-season load and Pau Cubarsí still building up after returning late from the World Cup.
The knock-on effect is that Koundé becomes the cover in two positions rather than the automatic starter in one. Garcia gets the shirt — and the armband. He is one of the provisional captains Flick named before the Gamper, alongside Raphinha and Pedri, with the squad vote deferred until the window shuts. “It’s a privilege for me to be one of the captains,” he said, “even if it’s only temporary.”
A defender’s answer to the No. 9 question
Garcia was also asked the question every Barça player is being asked this week: does this squad need a striker before 31 August? His answer was notably relaxed for a man whose two centre-forwards have both walked out of the building.
“The two centre-forwards we had have left. We’re what we’ve got; I think we have plenty of options up front. Anthony [Gordon] can play there, Karim [Adeyemi], Rapha has played there; even Lamine,” he told Barça Blaugranes. “Hamza is doing very well. Luckily, that’s the sporting director’s job, not mine. We accept what we have, which is already a lot. If someone else comes, they’ll be welcome.”
That is a more generous reading of the situation than either his manager or his sporting director offered. Flick said after the same match that “we’re looking for that player and Deco is doing a great job”, while Deco went further: “There’s a lot of speculation, but we’re going to make a move.” The hunt for a No. 9 is very much still on.
What it means for Sunday
Elche away, Sunday, 21:30 local time. On this evidence the back four picks itself: Garcia at right-back, Cubarsí and Christensen or Koundé in the middle, Alejandro Balde on the left. It is a small reshuffle with a large consequence — it hands one of the squad’s most reliable professionals a defined job for the first time in years.
Whether it holds across a season of three competitions is another matter. But for now, Eric Garcia knows where he is playing. After the career he has had at this club, that on its own counts as news.
