Barcelona has made its stance clear. Lamine Yamal is staying on the right wing for now, and that’s not changing anytime soon. Hansi Flick’s staff has no plans to shift the 18-year-old into a central striker role, according to El País.
It’s not that Yamal can’t play through the middle. He did it last season against Real Betis, and it worked fine. But the club sees his value on the flank, where his dribbling and speed create chaos for defenders. Barcelona thinks that’s where he’s most dangerous, and they’re not in a rush to move him.
Yamal himself has said he expects to eventually slide into a central position. But the club’s approach is gradualist — no urgency, no forced timeline. They want him to keep exploiting space out wide while the roster around him evolves.
The summer signings tell the story
Barcelona brought in Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi this summer. Raphinha is still there too. Those three attackers are fast, direct, and good at opening up gaps. Flick’s logic is straightforward: let Yamal feed off the spaces those guys create, rather than asking him to be the guy who creates space for others.
That’s not just development talk. It’s squad-building. Barcelona loaded up on runners so Yamal can stay on the right and do what he does best. The team hasn’t confirmed this explicitly, but the pattern is hard to ignore.
Julian Alvarez could seal the deal
The club is still pushing to sign Julian Alvarez from Atletico Madrid. If that deal goes through, Alvarez would likely slot in as the No. 9. That would strengthen the current framework even more — Yamal stays wide, the Argentine holds the center, and everyone else runs.
Barcelona hasn’t officially announced anything yet, but the pieces are lining up. No big positional experiment. No forced reinvention. Just a teenager on the wing, surrounded by a system built for him to thrive.
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