It will be hard to top sealing the LaLiga title against Clásico rivals Real Madrid, but 2025-26 is a season that has left Barcelona wanting more.
Of course, there were still the customary celebrations after Sunday’s 2-0 win over Madrid wrapped up the club’s 29th Spanish title. After the trophy had been presented on the Camp Nou pitch and the players’ families had partied on the playing surface — with Raphinha’s son Gael once again one of the stars of the show — Alejandro Balde and Marc Casadó headed off to Plaça Catalunya to celebrate with supporters. Meanwhile, Dani Olmo, Pedri and Eric García grabbed rental bikes and went on a victory lap around the city, while club president Joan Laporta headed to his usual party spot: the Luz de Gas nightclub.
After all, this was a moment to enjoy. Not only did Barça clinch the title mathematically courtesy of a result in the Clásico for the first time in their history, they had also just won back-to-back leagues under coach Hansi Flick, who still took charge of Sunday’s game despite the passing of his father over the weekend. What’s more, they did so with the youngest squad in LaLiga for the second season running. The average age has slightly increased from last year — from 24.1 years old to 24.6 — but they are the two youngest title-winning teams this millennium.
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At the center of the club’s success had been 18-year-old winger Lamine Yamal, despite the fact not everything has been straightforward for the teenager this season. However, he has been well supported, at least in terms of numbers, by the other forwards in the squad, while the summer transfer of goalkeeper Joan García from rivals Espanyol may prove one of the signings of the decade.
The team have been galvanised by losses, winning 23 of 25 league games after losing the reverse fixture to Madrid in October, and by grievances against referees. Raphinha called out the officiating in Spain’s top flight after a shock defeat to Girona in February saw Barça temporarily vacate top spot to Madrid. Eleven wins in a row followed, leading to an insurmountable 14-point lead over Madrid with just three games to go.
Still, despite also winning the Spanish Supercopa to make it five domestic trophies out of six since Flick took charge in 2024 (only this year’s Copa del Rey is absent), a failure to go beyond this season’s UEFA Champions League quarterfinals after defeat to Atlético Madrid means the players would not accept a repeat of this campaign next year.
“I wouldn’t sign to have the exact same season next year,” 19-year-old defender Pau Cubarsí told reporters on Sunday. “We want more. We’re young, hungry and we want to win everything.”
Yamal makes another leap forward
Barça began the campaign partly weighed down by increased expectations and partly believing their own hype. After a fun season last time out made them one of the must-watch teams in Europe again, resulting in a domestic treble and dramatic Champions League semifinal exit to Inter Milan, the bar had been raised. While little had been anticipated from Flick’s first season in charge, this year there was pressure to deliver in every competition.
Flick did not like what he saw early in the season. After a draw with Rayo Vallecano in August, he warned the players that “egos kill success.” He added: “Last season we played as a team as one unit and we have to go back to this.”
Sources told ESPN that Flick’s message was taken on board by the squad, although the results were not immediate. It took October defeats to Sevilla and Madrid to really refine the team’s focus, notably Yamal, who was at the center of the storm following the loss at the Bernabéu. Yamal had, jokingly, commented that Madrid “rob” in the build-up to that match. After Madrid won the Clásico, several Los Blancos players sought him out to chastise him for what he had said, while the crowd, who had previously cheered him as a Spain player, jeered him.
“He is learning to deal with the audience, the shouting and whistles from spectators,” Barça assistant coach Marcus Sorg said of the affect the atmosphere had on Yamal’s performance. “Today it was not so easy for him.”
That was not the only thing affecting Yamal. He had been through a high-profile breakup with Argentine singer Nicki Nicole and was also struggling with an ongoing groin issue, which was the source of repeated public spats between Barça and the Spain national team. However, sources told ESPN that Madrid game, and the fallout to his comments, was the moment he was advised to step back from certain public commitments. The sources stress his life away from football had never been detrimental to his focus or performances, but there was an acknowledgement he needed to change strategy by seeking a lower profile.
The results on the pitch followed as his groin problem was relatively well managed. He became Barça’s go-to player before his season ended with a torn hamstring in April, and scored 16 goals and provided 11 assists, with Real Oviedo coach Guillermo Almada lauding him as a player from “another galaxy”.
February saw him net his first career hat trick, against Villarreal, and said he was finally enjoying his football again after some tough months. He admitted: “I didn’t feel great [earlier this season]. There was the [groin] problem and, generally, I wasn’t happy. It was a mix of many things. You could tell.
“I have felt a lot better for a week or so now. I am smiling when I am playing, which wasn’t the case for a while, and I am happy on the pitch.”
Still room for improvement
Barça’s reliance on Yamal has perhaps hindered them in Europe, but in LaLiga other players have stepped up. While this, the third title of his fledgling career, may be remembered as the year Yamal definitively became *that guy*, there have been ample contributions from the other forwards.
There are seven Barça players in the top 16 for goal contributions in LaLiga: Yamal (27), Ferran Torres (17), Robert Lewandowski, Fermín López, Marcus Rashford and Olmo (all 15) and Raphinha (14). Pedri (10) has also reached double figures for goal contributions. Break that down to goal contributions per 90 minutes and Barça have six of the league’s top 12. Yamal ranks No. 1, ahead of Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé, with 1.07 goal contributions per 90.
But, remarkably, Barça’s goal-scoring numbers are slightly down on last season in LaLiga: from 2.68 to 2.6 per game.
“We didn’t score as many goals as last season, but I think we defended much better,” Flick said on Sunday. “Especially at the end of this season.”
The jury is still out on Barça’s defending, though. Sources told ESPN that the risks inherent in Flick’s high press and high line are accepted, but the team conceded far too many goals in the Champions League (20 in 12 games). After the unexpected departure of 34-year-old Iñigo Martínez — lamented by Flick due to the loss of leadership in the back line — the development of Gerard Martín, a left back plucked from the third division, into a top flight center back has been impressive. Eric Garcia has also delivered in a range of positions. Many times, though, they have been saved by his namesake in goal, Joan García.
There had actually been minor doubts about signing García for €25 million last summer, sources told ESPN. Not because of his talent, but because of the fact he was coming from local rivals Espanyol, the goalkeeper position seemed relatively well covered by Marc-André ter Stegen and Wojciech Szczesny, and debates around whether the club’s limited budget could be better spent elsewhere.
No one doubts the signing now. García has the highest GPrv (goals prevented) in the league at 10.58; Getafe’s David Soria ranks second with 8.51, with the other top positions mostly taken up by goalkeepers playing for struggling teams — Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois, for example, is 14th with 0.32.
Barça’s style of play means García is often exposed, but they have been grateful he is such a good shot-stopper. Highlights have come home and away against Rayo Vallecano, and back at his former club, where he was fiercely jeered throughout on his return to RCDE Stadium.
Sources on the coaching staff calculate he has helped Barça gain at least six points this season, if not more. He has kept 15 clean sheets in 29 games and conceded just 20 goals. To put that into context, in six games with Szczesny playing when García was injured, Barça leaked 11 goals.
No place like home
But even García could not stop February’s defeat to Girona. The Spanish Referee’s Committee [CTA] later admitted Girona’s winning goal in the game at Montilivi should not have stood because of a foul on Jules Koundé, but the damage had been done. The result allowed Madrid to leapfrog Barça at the top of the table, but the refereeing that night united the team in their pursuit of LaLiga, sources told ESPN.
“It’s very complicated when the rules are different whether it’s for you or against you, but if we have to play against everyone to win, it’s OK… We’re going to do it,” Raphinha said after that game.
Since then, Barça have been relentless, winning every league match even as injuries set in. Sunday’s victory against Madrid took their tally of successive wins to 11.
At home, they have won all 18 games so far, with just one to go against Real Betis. Sources point out their home form has been boosted by a belated return to Camp Nou. After starting the season at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, before moving to the Olympic Stadium, they eventually got back to the redeveloped Camp Nou — which won’t be completely finished until 2027 — in November. The capacity has gradually increased from 45,000 to its current 62,000, with the re-introduction of the Grada d’Animació in February (effectively a singing section) massively improving the atmosphere.
“With the fans supporting us like that, it’s going to be tough for anyone to beat us at home,” Raphinha said after March’s win over Newcastle United in Europe.
No one has beaten Barça at home, at least not in LaLiga, and they remain on course for a record-breaking season. They are the first-ever team to win 30 of their first 35 matches and could yet reach 100 points, a tally only ever hit twice in the history of the league — by Madrid in 2011-12 and Barça in 2012-13.
Yet for all their domination domestically, and the cherry on top of winning the title against Madrid for the first time ever, this is a Barça team that will not settle for their success this season. Cubarsí’s comments were echoed by Flick, who spoke in his news conference after winning the title of a team who “have more dreams,” need to reach the “next level” and want to “win the Champions League.”
Sources have told ESPN that Flick already knows what he wants in order to achieve those aims. He has communicated his desires for the upcoming summer transfer window to the club, while he has also dropped hints publicly, saying “leadership” and “experience” are required, while warning that they will have to be “perfect” in the transfer market. Sources have told ESPN that the manager wants to sign a center back, a striker, and possibly another more versatile forward.
A busy summer lies ahead, but first, more celebrations. An open-top bus parade has been scheduled through the city on Monday. It’s not every weekend you win the league title against your biggest rivals.
