Barcelona sets staggered preseason plan around World Cup absences
Barça opened preseason with 25 medicals and a partial squad, then mapped a two-stage ramp-up to St George’s Park and Birmingham.
FC Barcelona opened its 2026/27 preseason at 9:00 a.m. CEST on Monday with medical and fitness tests for 25 players, setting up a staggered ramp into Hansi Flick’s third season in charge. The club deliberately kept the first block light because players involved in the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada were still away, so the early work began with an incomplete senior group rather than the full first team.
That sequencing is the point. Barça put screening first, then training at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, then an overseas camp, then match prep. For a club managing workloads across a long season, the logic is straightforward: establish baseline health markers, calibrate individual loads, and avoid dumping competitive intensity onto players who are still returning from travel, tournament fatigue, or the summer break. It is a controlled build rather than a blunt restart.
The next step was already set. Barça planned to spend July 27 to August 3 at St George’s Park in England, a venue the club has used before for preseason work in 2014 and 2016. That history matters because it shows Barcelona treating the FA’s National Football Centre as a trusted base for early-summer conditioning, not a novelty stop. The club’s previous stays ran from July 28 to August 2 in 2014 and from July 25 to July 30 in 2016.
The England block will also include Barcelona’s first preseason friendly, against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park on Friday, July 31, 2026, at 7:45 p.m. BST, 8:45 p.m. CEST. The Birmingham ground has a listed capacity of 29,409, giving Barça a proper match environment before the competitive calendar tightens again. That game sits neatly inside the camp window and gives Flick a first live test of fitness, shape, and available depth after the staggered return.
The preseason setup also reflects a change in the performance staff. FC Barcelona announced German fitness coach Benjamin Kugel on July 6 as the new first-team conditioning lead, replacing Julio Tous. With a new fitness voice in place, a partial squad on site, and World Cup players returning later, Barça’s opening weeks look engineered to reduce injury risk while still building enough load to make the jump into the season.
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