A 4–2 win at Levante – under Hansi Flick, FC Barcelona continue to race from victory to victory. The club members are almost more grateful to him than to the players. The result: no one within the club itself is rated higher than the manager.
The dream team keep on winning. Following Sunday’s 4–2 victory at Levante, FC Barcelona have secured maximum points. Five wins in the first five league matches – the last time that happened was in 2024, when the team actually started with seven wins.
However, the club record for a start to the season is eight, which was set in 2013, when they were level on points with Atlético Madrid – in the end, the underdogs went on to win the title. What’s more: last season, Real Madrid started with five wins, but in the end the Madrid side clearly missed out on the title.
All in all, this means that, logically, nothing has been decided yet. As if he’d known it, manager Hansi Flick had therefore already warned before the Levante match: “I think it’s good that we’re enjoying the situation, but if we change our attitude in any way, things will go in the wrong direction.”
But that’s not an option at the moment. On Sunday, 19-year-old left-back Xavi Espart – who has really hit his stride this season – scored the opener as early as the 5th minute; it was his first goal in competitive football. Lamine Yamal extended the lead to 2–0 after a lay-off from captain Raphinha, who has been outstanding for weeks. However, after Yamal’s penalty made it 3–0, Barça became far too complacent, conceded two more goals, and Levante were back in the game. Note: Flick’s warning. It was only Karim Adeyemi’s goal to make it 4–2 that sealed the win for the reigning champions.
Including the Champions League – last week’s 5–1 win against Feyenoord Rotterdam – the team now has six wins from six competitive matches. Flick: “We want to win the Champions League, but we also want a third league title in a row.” Maximum ambition, then. President Joan Laporta agrees, by the way.
But back to Flick: “It’s great that we’re currently playing at such a high level, but we have to prove it in every match. We know our strengths, but we must maintain our focus, mentality and intensity.”
Which is why the manager fielded almost all his star players in the starting line-up against Levante – including Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, World Cup winners Rodri and Pedri, and new signing Anthony Gordon. Adeyemi, formerly of Dortmund – like Gordon, a new arrival – started on the bench despite his spectacular goal against Feyenoord, as did World Cup winner Dani Olmo. With relatively few injuries in the squad, Flick is currently spoilt for choice.
Speaking about his captain Raphinha, who had previously scored at least one goal in every competitive match, Flick said: “At the level he’s playing at the moment, he’s one of the best footballers in the world.”
The poll results speak clearly in Flick’s favour
As things stand, it is indeed hard to imagine who could stop Barça. The figures clearly speak in favour of the “Flick project”. Take the statistics, for example: since the 5–0 win in Valencia just over a week ago – Flick’s 63rd victory in his 80th league match – he has become the Catalans’ “best” manager of all time with a win rate of 78.75 per cent. Pep Guardiola once recorded 61 wins in 80 league matches, whilst Luis Enrique – now coach at PSG – managed 62 wins.
And the poll results also speak clearly in favour of the former German national team manager. In an independent, representative survey conducted by the Institut Feedback d’Investigació Aplicada amongst 3,000 club members – a survey the club always commissions at the start of the season – the club management’s decision to extend Flick’s contract until 2028 received an approval rating of 9.5 out of a possible 10 points.
No one scored higher; even the men’s team as a whole only achieved an approval rating of 9.0. Flick comments modestly: “I’m just the manager; the players are more valuable than the manager.”
By comparison, the 7.3 for President Laporta’s leadership and the 6.6 for the delays in the Camp Nou stadium refurbishment are rather meagre. The financial situation is also viewed very critically, with a score of 5.7, due to the high total debt of around two billion euros.
Barça’s financial success is built on credit
That said, the club has made progress in terms of the league’s Financial Fair Play rules; it has a wage bill of 582.7 million euros at its disposal – around 150 million euros more than in March – and, at around half a billion, is now below the limit set by the league for the club, taking its financial situation into account, for the first time in years. However, it still lags behind Real, which has 832.7 at its disposal.
Barça’s “financial success”, however, continues to be built on borrowed money, as the club recently had to generate €210 million in one-off revenue from the sale of TV rights in order to be able to be active in the transfer market in January, if necessary.
