Thanks to Flick and young stars, treble-chasing Barcelona are fun again

If you are of the Barcelona persuasion or simply a neutral who’s enjoying their verve this season, is it all beginning to feel like 2011 again? That 2010-11 campaign was their third swashbuckling season under manager Pep Guardiola, one in which his team — driven by Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andrés Iniesta — faced three Clásicos in 19 days to determine whether or not Barça would be LaLiga champions, Copa del Rey winners and victors of the Wembley Champions League final.

Spoiler: Two out of three ain’t bad! But it was a remarkable, controversial, draining, testing and, ultimately, a thrilling ride.

Today’s version of the Catalan club, newly inspired by coach Hansi Flick, now faces two Clásicos and two intensely testing semifinals against Inter Milan over the next 17 days in order to decide whether it will be Spanish champions, Copa del Rey winners and in the Munich Champions League final.

To compare the two different squads, man for man, would be a joke. Guardiola’s group 14 years ago was studded with all-time greats, most of whom had already won the Treble and would prove during that 19-day inferno that they were not just blessed with sublime talent but were also made of the “right stuff.” Flick’s group of tyro-talents is now under the microscope because it is tired and will temporarily be missing their leading scorer Robert Lewandowski — he’ll likely miss Saturday’s Copa final (stream LIVE on ESPN+, 3 p.m. ET). The group has also conceded six times in two matches and against both Madrid and Inter, the players face rivals who are much more streetwise, hard-nosed and battle-scarred than they are.

Is this bunch made of the right stuff? We shall see. But while there’s no question that trophies are the ultimate currency, the shiny things that put you on football’s Mount Rushmore, I think it’s arguable that the current Barcelona have already won something extremely valuable: Respect.

Let’s face it: the Camp Nou club has made itself a laughingstock over the past few years. Take your pick of the evidence. There’s the disgraceful way in which the club embarrassed itself — and stained its reputation for all time — in dealing with whether to, and how to, say goodbye to Messi, its greatest-ever footballer. Argue about the subsequent pluses and minuses all you want — the club made a complete hash of the process and looked extremely foolish while doing so.

Even naming them the “Camp Nou club” draws attention to the stadium. Firm plans to renew that grand old amphitheater were first announced in 2015. Building was to start in 2017 and the process was going to cost €600 million. The work was ultimately delayed by six years and only started in 2023. If they play football again in their HQ by September 2025 — their latest off-the-record estimate — they’ll be very nearly one year behind when they first claimed they would be back scoring goals on the new Camp Nou turf.

Then there is the ongoing custard pie fight of its finances. The genuinely extraordinary €1 billion-plus global debt accrued under the previous board, the club’s consistent inability to meet Financial Fair Play regulations set by LaLiga, deferred payments to stars and an almost perpetual struggle to register new, important footballers they’ve signed but are in risk of not being able to use. There have been near-constant dogfights with the governing body of the league, involving court case after court case and the world having to learn what the word “palanca” means — it’s all done huge damage to reputation and credibility. Even in English, “financial lever” is a phrase most of us never imagined we would need to look up in the dictionary.

If you wish to just focus on the football, then two results represent some of the desperate humiliation that has occurred since Barcelona last won the Champions League 10 years ago.

Cast your mind back to Bayern Munich 8-2 Barcelona in 2020 or, instead, go to Anfield and think of how a team still including Messi and Luis Suárez were 3-0 up against Liverpool in the 2019 Champions League semifinal after the home leg but exited with their tails between their legs, after a 4-0 thrashing in front of the Kop at Anfield. Just two results, yes, but a taste of what it has been like to see Barcelona looking ultra-vulnerable, inconsistent and often unimpressive during their “gone fishing, back soon” years.

It’s why there is an argument that even though there’s no silverware for their work in LaLiga, the Copa or Europe so far this season, the regaining of respect needs to be something that lasts even if the tests of the next 17 days either prove too much or leave Barcelona only partially victorious.

Over and again since the likable, pragmatic and straightforward Flick took charge in May 2024, Barcelona have played the most thrilling football anywhere on the planet — without exception. I really don’t think that quality of excitement, entertainment, romanticism or thrills are sufficiently talked about or valued anymore.

Set against the backdrop of constant controversy in the sport — things that one football figure or another has said, refereeing decisions and VAR, players being perpetually overused, and the dreadful yearlong calendar, to say nothing of other sagas such as the overarching, never-ending need to win or else a manager is sacked and a player is described as a failure — some of the essential things that made us all love football in the first place, like flair, daring, wit, entertainment, are unfathomably overlooked.

Now, Barcelona are not some Corinthian, amateur-ethos band of merry entertainers: the club is still in a perilous financial state, with progress in Europe and trophies vital for that reason alone. They also still pay huge wages and are a gigantic financial entity. Life is serious for them. But if you choose to watch, either as a fan or just a lover of football, what you’re almost 100% guaranteed is to see soccer that’s adventurous, high-risk and exhibits some of the things you used to try when you were playing on the street or in the park, the consequences no greater than skinned knees or teasing from your friends.

I don’t know how long this dazzling era will last: is it a one-season wonder or a dynasty? But Flick’s team has the youngest average age in LaLiga, and what his players have produced this season in the Champions League has inspired their German manager to use words like “pride,” “joy” and “thrilled” — eternal words that speak of human emotions rather than the grim, angry, stressful words now most often used by our sport’s central participants.

Sometimes they lose and very occasionally, they fail to score, but there really hasn’t been a match this season where something of beauty or inventiveness or fun has been absent.

Whether you choose the two Clásicos this season (11 goals, countless more thrills and spills) or the Catalan club in Europe, the evidence is clear. Barça, in the Champions League, are outside the top three for possession, eighth in terms of passing accuracy, 15th in balls won back and eighth in clean sheets — but you get goals and drama. Nobody has come close to them, with 37 goals scored by Flick’s side since the competition began. Oh, and you’ll be waiting a long, long time to be better entertained than Benfica 3-4 Barcelona, Dortmund 2-3 Barcelona or Barça 4-1 Bayern. (Their 4-3 comeback win against Celta Vigo last weekend in LaLiga was also in that champagne category. Matches with madness.)

For the record, I’m a touch cynical about whether a younger, smaller, more raw Barça fare well against a bigger, more experienced, meaner Inter. Do Barcelona play better football? I’m 100% sure, yes. Can they win that semifinal? It would require a new high watermark in this already startling season.

Two more Clásico wins in the Copa del Rey final on Saturday and then in what should be LaLiga’s decisive match on May 11? That would be historic.

The Treble? Becoming the only club to achieve that three times? Not sure, but it’s huge fun to watch them try.

Are Barcelona more fun than any other football club is consistently right now? Most certainly: catch them while you can. They’re gradually winning our respect again; trophies will eventually follow.