The Frenkie de Jong captaincy question has an answer, and according to El Larguero, carried on Friday morning by Barca Universal, it has nothing to do with a fallout and everything to do with three football matches at the World Cup. De Jong played on for the Netherlands at the World Cup while carrying a knee problem, chose not to have surgery, then went on holiday before reporting back to Barcelona in August for further medical tests. Hansi Flick, the report says, did not like the order of those events one bit.
The consequence was the armband. El Larguero say the temporary removal of De Jong’s captaincy came directly from Flick rather than from the club’s hierarchy, and that it was the manager’s way of making a point before the squad eventually settles the captaincy by vote. Flick himself has said separately that the ballot is being held back until the transfer window closes. Crucially, the same report insists Flick remains an admirer and still sees a role for the Dutchman once he is fit.
Why the Frenkie de Jong captaincy call came from Flick alone
The sequence matters. De Jong was carrying discomfort and still played three times for the Netherlands at the tournament, which is unusual in itself given injured players are not always kept with their national teams. He then opted against an operation, managing the problem instead – a call that was his to make, as players do have a say in how injuries are treated.
What appears to have irritated Flick more, per El Larguero, is what came next: the holiday, and only then the return to Barcelona for examinations. From a manager’s chair, that is a player putting his own calendar ahead of his club’s. Mundo Deportivo report that the MCL tear is being managed with conservative treatment and that De Jong is out indefinitely, which is why he has been absent throughout pre-season while Barca’s midfield reshaped itself around him.
What Flick has actually said in public
None of this has been framed as a rift by the manager. Speaking before the Joan Gamper Trophy, Flick said his relationship with De Jong was “very good” and “top”, and called him “an important player” – a line that sat alongside his provisional captaincy order of Raphinha as first captain, then Eric Garcia and Pedri, with De Jong described as the third captain but unavailable. Flick was explicit that the list was provisional and that the vote is being held back because the squad “is not finished yet”.
The two accounts sit awkwardly together – a manager publicly keeping De Jong inside the group of captains, and a radio report describing an armband quietly taken away. What is not in dispute is that Flick wanted his feelings known before the players cast their ballots, and that the final order is not yet on the record.
A crowded midfield and a cold reception
The timing is unkind. De Jong’s absence has coincided with the arrival of Rodri from Manchester City in a deal worth €60m fixed, into a midfield that already contained Pedri, Gavi, Fermin Lopez, Dani Olmo, Marc Bernal and Marc Casado. Mundo Deportivo also noted that De Jong was whistled more than applauded at the squad presentation on Gamper night, the same evening Raphinha delivered his first captain’s speech.
For a senior midfielder who was listed as Barca’s vice-captain as recently as the start of this month, that is a bleak backdrop to a season opener he cannot play in. Barca begin their LaLiga title defence away at Elche on Sunday.
The last word
Read coldly, this is not a punishment so much as a message. Flick has not sold De Jong, has not frozen him out, and has gone out of his way to say the relationship is fine. He has simply used the one lever a manager fully controls to signal that how a player handles an injury is a club matter, not a private one. The armband goes back up for a vote when the window closes. Whether De Jong’s name is still on that list is now, quite literally, in his team-mates’ hands.
