Barcelona's Search for a New No. 9: Hamza Abdelkarim's Trial
Barcelona’s search for a new No. 9 has drifted into familiar territory: big names, slow progress, and a ticking clock.
Deals for Joao Cancelo and Rodri are edging closer, but the glaring hole up front remains. The push for Julian Alvarez has stalled, with Atletico Madrid unwilling to lose one of their key men. The idea of moving for Viktor Gyokeres has gathered noise, yet inside the club another name has started to grow louder.
Hamza Abdelkarim.
A trial that turned heads
According to Mundo Deportivo, Hamza didn’t just arrive at Barcelona’s training ground to make up the numbers. From his very first session, he forced people to take notice.
Coaches saw a pure finisher. Not a false nine, not a wide forward. A striker.
In a dedicated finishing drill set up to really test him, Hamza showed the full range: whipped shots bending into the far corner, sharp, instinctive efforts stabbed in at the near post. He didn’t need many touches. He didn’t need much space.
Then came the header.
One early effort in the air reportedly stunned the staff — the power, the timing, the clean contact. It wasn’t polished yet, but the raw material was obvious. A classic penalty-box forward, with the frame and instincts to live off half-chances.
For a club scouring Europe for goals, that kind of profile is hard to ignore.
Teaching a No. 9 to stay a No. 9
There was a problem, though, and it was a very modern Barcelona problem.
At the start of his trial, Hamza watched how the team’s forwards operated. He saw them dropping into midfield, linking play, drifting wide. So he copied them. He came short, moved away from the box, tried to join the build-up like a typical Barça forward of the past decade.
Pol Planas and his staff stepped in quickly.
They didn’t want another roaming forward. They wanted a striker who lives where it hurts.
The message was clear: leave the penalty area only when the game truly demands it. Stay high. Stay central. Stay where defenders hate you most.
To hammer that home, the coaches turned to video. Erling Haaland. Viktor Gyokeres. Samuel Eto’o. Three very different forwards, one common thread — ruthless movement in and around the box.
Clips of Haaland holding his position, then exploding into space. Gyokeres constantly attacking the channel between centre-back and full-back. Eto’o timing his runs to arrive, not just to be there.
The idea is simple: reshape Hamza’s instincts so that his first thought is always to occupy dangerous zones, not to vacate them. Keep him close to goal, where his finishing can decide games, rather than pulling him into areas where others can operate.
Flick’s blueprint and a looming decision
Hansi Flick shares that vision. His approach with Hamza follows the same line: minimal roaming, maximum presence in the area. A striker as a reference point, not a decoy.
For Barcelona, it’s a small but significant shift in thinking. While the club chases a marquee signing, they are quietly sculpting an in-house alternative — a young Egyptian forward being taught to become a specialist in the most valuable art of all: scoring.
The market may yet deliver a big name before the window closes. But if it doesn’t, Barcelona already know where to look next.
Just inside the box, where Hamza Abdelkarim is being trained to live.
