{"id":73424,"date":"2026-08-20T20:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T20:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/73424\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T20:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T20:07:13","slug":"flick-welcomes-cancelos-return-to-barcelona-what-he-can-give-us-in-attack-is-extraordinary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/73424\/","title":{"rendered":"Flick welcomes Cancelo&#8217;s return to Barcelona: &#8216;What he can give us in attack is extraordinary&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier today, <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/confirmed-barcelona-re-sign-joao-cancelo-on-a-permanent-transfer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">FC Barcelona announced the signing of Joao Cancelo<\/a>, with the 32-year-old defender returning as a free agent after terminating his contract at Al Hilal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Having spent the second half of the last season on loan at the Spotify Camp Nou, Cancelo made such a big impression that the Catalans wanted to bring him back, this time permanently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Negotiations with Al Hilal were not easy, but the player\u2019s willingness to return to the club ultimately proved crucial.<\/p>\n<p>Hansi Flick welcomes Cancelo back<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hansi Flick, head coach of FC Barcelona, wanted Cancelo back after the Portuguese defender\u2019s strong performances during his loan spell at the end of last season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The German coach was very satisfied with the full-back\u2019s level and, after his return was confirmed, he welcomed the veteran star back. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f Hansi Flick sobre el fichaje de Cancelo <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8ahOeM2wtU\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/8ahOeM2wtU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FCBarcelona_es\/status\/2090476667147895018?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 20, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLast season, when he arrived, I think he needed a little time to adapt. But in the end he gave us many options and a lot of quality in attack, and he also performed very well defensively,\u201d said the Barcelona manager.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat\u2019s precisely what I expect from him: defence, because he\u2019s a full-back. He has to defend very well, but what he can give us in attack is extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cancelo\u2019s numbers last season<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While he had a slow start under Flick, Cancelo eventually picked up his pace and went on to become the first-choice starter at left-back ahead of Alejandro Balde.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flick gave Cancelo plenty of confidence, and the Portuguese responded emphatically. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fc-barcelona-v-real-betis-balompie-laliga-ea-sports-5-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Joao Cancelo of FC Barcelona\" class=\"wp-image-201317\"  \/>Back at Barcelona. (Photo by Eric Alonso\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The full-back played 23 matches, most of them on the left side of the defence, scoring two goals and providing three assists. That positive record earned him a return to Spotify Camp Nou.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pending his registration with La Liga, Cancelo is in contention to become Bar\u00e7a\u2019s starting left-back again this season and will provide significant competition within the squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For now, it is unlikely that he will be starting this weekend against Elche, having only joined the club and not had enough training with the rest of the squad.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier today, FC Barcelona announced the signing of Joao Cancelo, with the 32-year-old defender returning as a free&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,223,930,937],"class_list":["post-73424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-hansi-flick","tag-joao-cancelo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73424","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=73424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}