Jules Koundé's Fight for a Place at Barcelona

Jules Koundé is living a new reality at Barcelona. For the first time since Hansi Flick walked through the door, the France defender is no longer a near-automatic name on the team sheet, and that change has driven him into overtime in a bid to claw his way back.

According to Catalan newspaper Sport, Flick has not viewed Koundé as a priority since June. Inside the club, the sporting department were open to listening to offers, and, crucially, the player himself was no longer firmly against a move if the right proposal arrived. The untouchable status had gone.

The start of the season has only underlined that shift. Koundé’s level dipped last year, and in recent games others have simply done better than him at right-back. The hierarchy has changed on the pitch, and he knows it.

He also knows why he is where he is. By his own standards, this is not his best version. To convince Flick again, he has to fight for it. Nobody at the club questions his professionalism or his physical drive. That has always been his calling card.

When first-team training wraps up and most of his team-mates head back to the dressing room, Koundé stays out on the grass. Sport reports that he continues working with fitness coaches and physiotherapists, piling extra drills onto the club’s regular programme. Then come the gym sessions and the extra hours at the Ciutat Esportiva. His response to a shrinking role is blunt: work more, work harder.

This is not some sudden reaction to a crisis. It is the same path he followed during the peak of his career so far, when major European clubs – Manchester City among them – were tracking his every move. Back then, the extra sessions were about maintaining a rise. Now they are about sparking a resurgence.

The context has changed. The method hasn’t.