The 18-year-old completed his preseason with a goal against Al Ahly in the Joan Gamper Trophy. In the 29th minute, he converted Alejandro Balde’s delivery to open the scoring in Barcelona’s 2-1 victory. He refused to celebrate against his former club, but did everything else required to make himself impossible to ignore.

It was his first appearance for the senior side at Spotify Camp Nou and his first goal at the stadium. More importantly, it was not a one-off moment created especially for the occasion.

Hamza began preseason by scoring twice against Birmingham City. He then found the net in Basel after spending only four minutes on the pitch. His fourth goal arrived against Al Ahly. Barcelona scored ten times throughout their preparations, with Hamza finishing ahead of Jesse Bisiwu and Raphinha, who scored twice each. Karim Adeyemi and Lamine Yamal contributed one goal apiece.

This was not the story of a young player accidentally standing in the right place for one cross. Hamza received regular opportunities, started matches and used his minutes far better than anyone could reasonably have demanded. He even cut short his holiday following his involvement with Egypt at the World Cup to join Barcelona’s preseason preparations early.

Seven players made their first Barça appearance at Spotify Camp Nou during the Joan Gamper Trophy: Karim Adeyemi, Hamza Abdelkarim, Jesse Bisiwu, Brian Fariñas, Orian Goren, Jordi Pesquer and Anthony Gordon. Hamza was the only one to combine that debut with a goal.

And this is where the story becomes unmistakably Barcelona.

Hansi Flick is still waiting for a traditional number nine, while Deco has publicly admitted that the club are working on replacing Robert Lewandowski. The sporting director has mentioned internal solutions, but Barcelona continue to examine the transfer market. Lautaro Martínez became one of the latest names under consideration, only for Inter to respond that their captain is not for sale at any price. No official offer has even reached Milan.

For now, Flick’s only natural centre-forward is therefore an 18-year-old whom the club are praising for scoring four goals while simultaneously checking whether a more glamorous solution can be purchased elsewhere.

That does not mean Hamza should immediately become the first-choice striker or carry the responsibility of replacing Lewandowski. Preseason is not La Liga, and a handful of good performances guarantees nothing. Still, it is difficult to present a stronger case than scoring four of the team’s ten goals.

Barcelona begin their league campaign away to Elche on Sunday. That match may provide the first indication of whether the preseason top scorer genuinely has a place in Flick’s plans or was simply a pleasant summer story before the club makes another expensive attempt to find someone who plays in exactly the same position.

“We may still be missing something. We’ll see this week,” Flick said when asked about the possibility of further signings.

The coach did not mention a position or name any player. Anyone who wants to find Rodri or Julián Álvarez in that sentence will have to add the name themselves. Both players have been linked with Barcelona, but Flick’s words were not a confirmation of either move.

His comment came after a match in which Barcelona’s attack hardly looked short of options. Karim Adeyemi scored and provided an assist on his first start for the club. Hamza Abdelkarim also found the net, while Lamine Yamal marked his return after the World Cup by converting a penalty and registering an assist.

The closing stages belonged to Jesse Bisiwu. The young Belgian came off the bench and scored twice within a matter of minutes, first finding the top corner before converting Yamal’s pass in stoppage time. Anthony Gordon also made his Barcelona debut and played the opening 45 minutes.

Five goals make for a pleasant scoreline, but conceding twice and hearing Flick’s assessment should prevent anyone from declaring the squad complete just yet. The coach also stressed that his team is not yet in its best physical condition. Several players only recently returned following the World Cup, and Flick does not expect Barcelona to reach their optimum level until the end of September.

Barcelona have one more friendly to play. They will face Al-Ahly in the Joan Gamper Trophy on 19 August before beginning their La Liga campaign against Elche.

On the pitch, there was plenty to enjoy: five goals, encouraging performances from the new arrivals and youngsters pushing for a place in the senior squad. After the final whistle, however, Flick reminded everyone that the shopping list may not have been thrown away. At Barcelona, even a 5–2 victory can end with the conclusion that something is still missing.

Kick-off was at 4:30pm CEST. Barcelona took the lead through Karim Adeyemi, who finished off a Raphinha assist, but 17-year-old Jean Doucouré levelled for Basel before the break. Hamza Abdelkarim, scoring his third goal of the preseason, restored Barça’s lead after the interval.

With ten minutes left, a foul on Jules Koundé inside the box gave Barcelona a penalty. Yamal, who had come on in the 65th minute alongside Dani Olmo for his first minutes since the World Cup, stepped up and converted it. Basel hit back with a penalty of their own, converted by Kazeem Olaigbe, but the closing stages belonged to Bisiwu. The Belgian winger, signed from Club Brugge for around €8 million last month, curled home a stunning finish before adding a simple tap-in set up by Yamal to make it 5-2.

Notably absent from the squad were Pedri and Gavi. According to Mundo Deportivo, this isn’t injury-related — it’s a deliberate call by Hansi Flick’s staff to bring both midfielders back up to full intensity gradually rather than risk them in friendlies at this stage. Frenkie de Jong and Roony Bardghji remain out through injury. Meanwhile, Dani Olmo, Jules Koundé and Pau Cubarsí all got their first minutes of the preseason, and summer signing Anthony Gordon (€70m from Newcastle) made his first start for the club.

It’s Barcelona’s penultimate test before the season starts — the Joan Gamper Trophy against Al Ahly comes on Wednesday, and the La Liga opener is away at Elche on Sunday, August 23.

The friendly result itself doesn’t matter much, but the numbers do. Barcelona paid around €8 million for Bisiwu, and he already has two preseason goals to show for it. Compare that to the €100 million the club was reportedly willing to put on the table for Julián Álvarez, or the €65 million bid for Rodri — both of which have produced plenty of headlines and nothing else so far. Sometimes the best signing of the summer is the one nobody was talking about.

Gordon signed for Barcelona at the end of May, but his participation in the World Cup delayed the start of his preseason under Hansi Flick. This is his first matchday trip with the club. A place in the starting eleven is not guaranteed, although his debut now looks very likely.

The timing is interesting because Ferran Torres has just completed his move to Paris Saint-Germain. Flick has lost a player who could operate both out wide and through the middle. Gordon is primarily a left winger, but Barcelona’s official profile also highlights his ability to play as a centre-forward. His first appearance may offer an early clue about the role Flick has prepared for him.

Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, Pau Cubarsí, Eric García and Joan García have also travelled to Basel. Pedri and Gavi have stayed behind as part of their individual fitness programmes.

This will be Barcelona’s penultimate test before the competitive season begins. Following a 2–2 draw against Birmingham City and shortened matches against Nottingham Forest and Udinese, Flick needs more than another preseason exercise. He needs to start finding out how his reshaped attack will actually work. Announcing a signing takes one statement. Building a functioning team usually takes a little longer.

FC Basel will face FC Barcelona on Sunday, 16 August at 4:30 p.m. CEST at St. Jakob-Park. According to Mundo Deportivo, the match will be available through a paid stream on Barça Play and the club’s official YouTube channel, although availability may vary by country.

Barcelona will then face Al Ahly in the Joan Gamper Trophy on Wednesday. After that, the friendlies are over and Gordon’s real examination begins.

The friendly itself may not be the biggest fixture on the calendar, but Basel has a special place in Barcelona’s European history. On 16 May 1979, Barça beat Fortuna Düsseldorf 4–3 after extra time there to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup, with Carles Rexach, Juan Manuel Asensi, Hans Krankl and Julio Alberto scoring. The club itself describes that night as one of the great milestones in its European history. 

Barcelona’s most recent visit was rather enjoyable too. In October 2008, Pep Guardiola’s side demolished FC Basel 5–0 in the Champions League. Lionel Messi opened the scoring, Bojan struck twice, Xavi added another and Sergio Busquets scored his first goal for Barça’s first team. Almost 18 years later, Barcelona return to a city where their memories are significantly healthier than some of their recent balance sheets. 

There is another historical connection. Both clubs use the initials FCB and wear blue and claret, while Barcelona founder Hans Gamper played at least one match for FC Basel in 1896. One theory even suggests that Barça’s colours were inspired by Basel, although Barcelona itself stresses that this remains only one of several possible explanations. 

For Flick, however, nostalgia will be secondary. Barcelona’s league season starts later than that of some rivals because several players were involved in the latter stages of the World Cup, so there is not much preparation time left. Basel is another test rather than a history lesson — although it never hurts to remember that Barça once travelled to Switzerland to collect European trophies, not simply preseason minutes. 

FC BASEL – FC BARCELONA
📅 Sunday, August 16
⏰ 16:30 CEST
🏟️ St. Jakob-Park, Basel
📺 Barça Play and FC Barcelona’s official YouTube Premium channel — the club’s live video coverage is available in Spain only. Worldwide, the match can also be followed through Barça’s live text coverage, official app and social channels. 

That is a clear step forward from Wednesday, when Lamine Yamal had only just returned to the pitch for individual work with the ball. Now Barça are showing a full group session rather than another collection of personalised programmes and recovery work.

The timing matters. Barcelona still have friendlies against Basel on 16 August and Al Ahly in the Gamper on 19 August before their league opener at Elche on 23 August. Flick finally has the players back. Now he has to turn a collection of different post-World Cup fitness levels into something resembling a starting XI.

It was not a full-intensity team session. Lamine followed a specific individual programme as Barcelona carefully reintegrate their Spanish internationals after the World Cup.

So there is no need for the usual August miracle story about him being ready to play 90 minutes tomorrow. But the first step is done: gym in the morning, grass and ball in the evening. Flick has his biggest attacking weapon back at work; now comes the less glamorous part of actually getting him ready.

Casadó’s situation is particularly striking. The midfielder was given opportunities by Hansi Flick not long ago, but his future is now expected to lie away from Barcelona. Fort finds himself in a similar position. Instead of preparing them normally for the new season, Barça’s priority appears to be getting both players safely to the end of the transfer window.

SER also reports that Tommy Marques, Jofre Torrents, Toni Fernández and Guille Fernández were outside the normal first-team group, with decisions still to be made over their futures. Barça’s summer selection process has become rather literal: some players are preparing for the season, while others are being protected for the exit door.

Barcelona have spent years talking about their commitment to youth. Apparently there is another stage to the famous pathway now: develop them, promote them, put a price on them — and then make sure nobody pulls a muscle before the buyer arrives.

It was not yet a full-squad session. Jules Koundé is scheduled to return on Tuesday, while Dani Olmo, Ferran Torres, Pau Cubarsí, Lamine Yamal and Pedri are expected back on Wednesday. Double sessions are planned for Wednesday and Thursday before Sunday’s friendly against FC Basel.

Barcelona have spent the past few months presenting Gordon, packaging the story and placing him at the centre of their latest grand project. Flick can finally move on to the inconvenient part: finding out how the new winger actually fits into his team. The announcement was completed in May. The sporting integration has only just begun.

Flick’s team scored 20 times in four friendlies last summer. This is not a perfectly fair comparison: two of this year’s games lasted only 45 minutes and several World Cup players have yet to return. Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo are due back on August 12. Robert Lewandowski, however, has already left, while Ferran Torres reportedly wants to join PSG.

Pre-season results are no reason to panic. They can still expose the order in which a squad has been built. Barça strengthened the wings, allowed their starting striker to leave and opened the door for his main replacement to follow. Finding someone to score the goals came further down the list.