FC Barcelona have entered pre-season with their captaincy structure in considerable disarray, with Hansi Flick forced to navigate a situation in which all five of the club’s recognised skippers are either unavailable, carrying injury concerns, or facing uncertain futures at the club. As Diario AS has reported, the combined status of those five players is already creating a fresh layer of planning difficulty for the head coach ahead of a competitive season that begins in under a month.
Of the five captains, Ter Stegen, Araujo, Raphinha, De Jong, and Pedri, Of that group, ter Stegen is widely expected to leave the club, with a loan move to Ajax discussed for several weeks now, though that deal has recently run into a roadblock. Similarly, Ronald Araujo’s future at the club is not very certain., while De Jong and Raphinha are both managing physical problems that have affected their pre-season availability. the remaining one, Pedri, is not set to join the team till 10 August.
The practical consequences were already visible in the Blaugranes’ first pre-season fixture against Europa, where Andreas Christensen took the armband in the first half before ter Stegen took it for the second.
Flick has indicated a preference for academy graduates to take on greater responsibility within the squad structure, which points toward Eric Garcia, Dani Olmo, Gavi, or Lamine Yamal to become a captain of Barcelona before the start of the next season to fill any such role before the season begins.
