{"id":23194,"date":"2026-05-14T09:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/23194\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T09:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:12:10","slug":"barcelona-debutant-set-for-major-pre-season-reward-after-impressing-hansi-flick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/23194\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona debutant set for major pre-season reward after impressing Hansi Flick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hansi Flick appears to have found another young talent he can trust at Barcelona following the impressive debut of Alvaro Cortes against Deportivo Alaves.<\/p>\n<p>According to fresh reports from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mundodeportivo.com\/futbol\/fc-barcelona\/20260514\/1004183086\/debutante-cortes-gusta-flick-apunta-pretemporada.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Mundo Deportivo<\/a>, the manager was highly satisfied with what he saw from the young centre-back during Barcelona\u2019s recent league match, to the point where Cortes is now expected to be included in the club\u2019s pre-season squad ahead of next season.<\/p>\n<p>The appearance against Alaves marked another important moment in Flick\u2019s Barcelona tenure, with Cortes becoming the 10th player to make his debut under the German coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Notably, Cortes had already spent several weeks training with the senior squad and had been pushing for an opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A strong debut performance<\/p>\n<p>Against Alaves, Flick finally handed him his chance and the youngster responded with a <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/forget-bastoni-la-masia-gem-could-be-the-solution-to-barcelonas-left-footed-centre-back-problem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">performance that exceeded expectations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the pressure of making a first-team debut, the defender looked remarkably calm throughout the entire match.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He never appeared overwhelmed by the occasion and showed personality from the very beginning, even when Barcelona were under pressure.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/696074882_18632342671023674_4329268998909006718_n-1920x1080-1-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Alvaro Cortes, Barcelona player\" class=\"wp-image-199622\"  \/>Alvaro Cortes left a strong impression. (Picture credit: Instagram\/@alvaarocortes)<\/p>\n<p>Although there were a few moments where he lost possession, Cortes quickly recovered and continued demanding the ball with confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Across the full 90 minutes, Cortes recorded 109 touches and completed 88 passes with an outstanding 95% accuracy rate and completed five long passes successfully.<\/p>\n<p>Defensively, the Barcelona academy graduate also delivered a highly convincing display.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He won most of his ground duels, competed strongly in the air, and, perhaps most importantly, was never beaten in 1v1 situations.<\/p>\n<p>That balance between calmness on the ball and defensive aggression is precisely what Barcelona have been searching for in recent months, and now, there is a feeling that Cortes could become an important option.<\/p>\n<p>Flick\u2019s decision to keep him close to the first team for pre-season now looks increasingly likely, especially after a debut that left a strong impression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hansi Flick appears to have found another young talent he can trust at Barcelona following the impressive debut&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8393,92,222,223,930],"class_list":{"0":"post-23194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-alvaro-cortes","9":"tag-barcelona","10":"tag-barcelona-news","11":"tag-fc-barcelona","12":"tag-hansi-flick"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}