Hansi Flick is no longer talking around it.

“We are looking for this player, the striker. Deco is doing a great job and I trust him blindly,” Flick told reporters at Spotify Camp Nou on Wednesday night, after his side’s 2-1 win over Al Ahly in the Joan Gamper Trophy.

Flick had already flagged the urgency at the start of the month.

“We know we have to do something. It also depends on Ferran Torres, we’ll see,” he said on 3 August.

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The Torres question has since answered itself. Paris Saint-Germain completed the signing of the Spain forward earlier this month in a deal worth around €50m, thinning the centre-forward stock at Camp Nou less than two months after Robert Lewandowski left as a free agent on 30 June. Two departures, no replacement yet.

Hamza’s night against his old club

The player who put Barcelona ahead was, until February, an Al Ahly forward. Hamza Abdelkarim, an 18-year-old Egypt international whose initial loan was made permanent in June, finished in the 29th minute and declined to celebrate. Raphinha added a first-half penalty and Zizo pulled one back after the break, per the official club report.

It was Hamza’s fourth pre-season goal, and his profile has been earning increasingly serious attention from Flick since a two-goal display against Birmingham City in late July.

“Hamza Abdel Karim is a profile that gives us a different option,” Flick said then.

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“What you can also notice in training, especially in crosses, is that he is always in the right place, and he is also very excellent in aerial duels, which is what we need.”

The Álvarez question is not closed

The name Barcelona keep returning to is Julián Álvarez. Atlético Madrid have refused to negotiate for the Argentine and have already rejected a bid, with relations between the two clubs deteriorating after Atlético accused Barça of approaching the player behind their backs. Flick’s public trust in Deco has to hold up against that backdrop, with roughly ten days left before the Spanish window shuts.

Barcelona open La Liga at Elche on Sunday. Flick told the same press conference the trip would not be easy but insisted his squad had the quality to cope.

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