Jules Koundé Faces Challenge for Barcelona Spot

Jules Koundé is in a place he barely recognises.

For the first time since Hansi Flick walked through the door, the France defender is no longer a near-automatic name on the Barcelona team sheet. The security of that right-back spot has gone, and with it the comfort of routine. What remains is a fight.

According to Catalan outlet Sport, Flick has not considered Koundé a priority since June. Inside the club, the sporting department were ready to listen to offers in the summer, and this time the player was no longer firmly against the idea of leaving. The door, once bolted shut, had been left ajar.

The opening weeks of the season have underlined why. Koundé’s level dipped last year and, in recent games, others have simply done better than him on the right side of defence. The hierarchy has shifted in real time, in front of him.

He knows it. There is no illusion in his camp about his form or his status. If he wants Flick’s trust back, he has to take it, not expect it.

So he has gone back to his default response: work.

When the main training session finishes and team-mates drift towards the dressing room, Koundé stays out on the pitch. Sport report that the France international has been adding extra sessions with the club’s fitness coaches and physiotherapists, chasing sharpness, rhythm, and the explosiveness that once made him one of Europe’s most coveted defenders.

The pattern is clear. More time in the gym. Longer days at the training ground. Less talk, more sweat.

This is not some late-career reinvention. It is who he has always been. Even during the best spell of his career, when major clubs such as Manchester City were closely tracking his situation, Koundé leaned on the same routine: extra work when no one was watching, extra hours when others had clocked off.

The difference now is the context. Back then, the grind was about staying at the top. Today, it is about getting back there – and convincing a new coach he still belongs in that conversation.