Jules Koundé's Commitment to Regain Barcelona's Trust

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 the change has driven him into overtime in a bid to claw his way back.

According to Catalan outlet Sport, Koundé has not been among Flick’s priorities since June. The club’s sporting department were open to listening to offers in the summer, and, significantly, the player himself was no longer ruling out a move if the right proposal landed on the table.

The first weeks of the season have only underlined that shift. His level dipped last year and, at right-back, others have simply performed better in recent games. The hierarchy has changed. So has Koundé’s status.

He is under no illusions. He knows he is not at his peak and that Flick’s trust now has to be earned, not assumed. What nobody inside the club questions is his commitment to doing exactly that.

Koundé has always chased optimum condition. When the main session finishes and most of his team-mates drift back towards the dressing room, the France international often stays out on the pitches at the training ground, working with fitness coaches and physiotherapists, Sport reports. The pattern is clear: more running, more drills, more detail.

His response to a shrinking role is blunt: work harder. That means extra time in the gym, longer days at the Ciutat Esportiva and a refusal to let standards slide, even as his place in the XI does.

It is not a sudden reinvention. This is the same approach he took during the high point of his career, when major European clubs — Manchester City among them — were tracking his every performance. Back then, the extra hours were about staying at the top. Now they are about getting back there.