Jules Koundé Faces New Challenges at Barcelona

Jules Koundé is in a place he barely recognises.

For the first time since Hansi Flick walked through the door, the France international is no longer a near-automatic starter. The right-back spot that once felt almost ring‑fenced now looks wide open, and Koundé is the one chasing, not leading.

According to Catalan newspaper Sport, Flick has not viewed Koundé as a priority since June. Inside the club, the sporting department were prepared to listen to offers, and this time the defender himself was no longer firmly against the idea of leaving. The security of his role had gone. So had the certainty about his future.

The early weeks of the season have underlined the change. Koundé’s level dipped last year, and recent games have seen others get the nod and deliver more convincing performances on the right side of defence. The hierarchy on that flank has shifted, and it has not shifted in his favour.

Koundé is fully aware of it. He knows he is not at his peak, and he knows Flick’s trust will not be handed back on reputation alone. It has to be earned.

What nobody at the club questions is his response.

The Frenchman has long been obsessed with his physical condition, and that obsession has only intensified now that his role is under threat. When first-team training wraps up and team-mates drift towards the dressing room, Koundé stays out on the pitch. Sport report that he works on, side by side with fitness coaches and physiotherapists, squeezing more out of each day than the schedule demands.

His solution to a shrinking role is blunt and uncompromising: work harder.

That means extra sessions in the gym. Longer evenings at the training complex. More individual drills, more conditioning, more time spent trying to sharpen the edges that dulled last season. The battle is not just tactical or technical; it is physical, mental, almost obsessive.

And this, crucially, is not some sudden reinvention. Even during the brightest spell of his career, when major European clubs – Manchester City among them – were closely tracking his situation, Koundé followed the same path. Extra work then, extra work now. The difference is that back then he was polishing an already glittering reputation. This time he is fighting to keep his place.

The context has changed. His habits have not.