{"id":138373,"date":"2025-09-07T01:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T01:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/138373\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T01:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T01:52:14","slug":"barcelona-strengthen-coaching-staff-with-addition-of-former-midfielder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/138373\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona strengthen coaching staff with addition of former midfielder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona may not have made many star signings in the summer transfer window, but they have made a big-name addition to their coaching staff shortly after it. Former midfielder Thiago Alcantara spent some time with the Blaugrana at the beginning of Hansi Flick\u2019s tenure, and it appears he will be returning.<\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old retired from football last summer after leaving Liverpool on a free, following an injury-wrought few seasons. With Flick recently installed at Barcelona, and well-acquainted with Flick from their time together at Bayern Munich, Thiago was drafted in to help the adaptation process for the German manager. His familiarity with the club he came through at, combined with the ability to communicate in German, English and Spanish made him a useful addition, with local media speaking highly of his impact.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Balde and Gavi are out for the Valencia game, and it remains to be seen how serious the discomfort of De Jong and Lamine Yamal is. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gbsans?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@gbsans<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 barcacentre (@barcacentre) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/barcacentre\/status\/1964233607037296757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 6, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thiago\u2019s forced exit from Barcelona<\/p>\n<p>However on the eve of Flick\u2019s first game, it was announced by the club that Thiago would be ending his association after a few short weeks. The reasoning provided was that Thiago was keen to get his own coaching education, but was also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football-espana.net\/2024\/08\/23\/thiago-alcantara-already-thinking-about-return-to-barcelona-after-liverpool-stay\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">required to reside in England for the remainder of 2024 in order to avoid tax issues<\/a>. He did not return once that period was completed in the second half of last season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1249\" height=\"555\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Thiago-Flick-1.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-265436 has-webp\" alt=\"Hansi Flick and Thiago Alcantara\"  data- style=\"aspect-ratio:1249\/555;max-width:1249px\"\/>Image via FC BarcelonaBarcelona to bring back Thiago<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/as.com\/futbol\/thiago-vuelve-al-staff-para-reforzar-el-mensaje-de-flick-n\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Diario AS<\/a>, amongst other sources, Thiago is now set to return to Flick\u2019s coaching staff. They highlight his role in Barcelona\u2019s fast start last season, and note that Flick has blind faith in the former Liverpool star. They also note that Flick and Thiago\u2019s family spent several days together this summer on holiday on the Costa Brava, an indicator of their close relationship.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, youth coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football-espana.net\/2025\/02\/13\/thiago-barcelona-coaching-staff\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arnau Blanco stepped into his shoes as a language aid<\/a>, but Blanco is now integrated as part of the staff, and there is no indication he will depart.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona may not have made many star signings in the summer transfer window, but they have made a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-138373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}