Barcelona begin stepping up preparations as Flick ramps up preseason work | OneFootball

The FC Barcelona coach Hansi Flick has finished his vacations and is already training the available first team players and some youngsters from the academy since 13 July. On that date, the players who were not participating in the World Cup 2026 returned to the club to undergo their medical tests and to start training ahead of the 2026-27 season.

Going forward, two days into preseason training, Mundo Deportivo reports that the German coach is now planning to ramp up the intensity of his sessions, and today, on Wednesday, will hold his first double session. Keeping up with the customary practice, he would break up these sessions, one of them being more focused on physical training, and the other on work with the ball.

Regarding the training sessions that have been held so far, the report reveals that the midfielder Fermin Lopez has not been able to train with the rest of the group, as he continues to work in the gym after recovering from a toe injury that kept him from being called up for the World Cup.

Meanwhile, other first-team players like Ter Stegen, Szczesny, Balde, Christensen, Casadó, Gerard Martín, Marc Bernal, Héctor Fort, and Roony Bardghji have all been training under Flick since Monday.

They have been joined in the training sessions by youngsters like Jofre Torrents, Álvaro Cortés, Hafiz Gariba, Tommy Marqués, Orian Goren, Ebrima Tunkara, Ibrahim Diarra, Guille Fernández, Álex González, Shane Kluivert, Òscar Gistau, Toni Fernández, and Áron Yaakobishvili. Another youngster, Brian Farinas, also joined them on Tuesday.

The situation of Marc-Andre ter Stegen is somewhat complicated, as he is close to completing a loan move to Ajax, but before that happens, he continues to train with the Barcelona first team. Going forward, more first team players will gradually join Hansi Flick in training, as they complete their vacations and report back to the club.