Barcelona hasn’t exactly kept it a secret—they’re looking for a defender, and it sounds like Joao Cancelo is their main target. At first, people inside the club weren’t all on the same page about bringing Cancelo back, but now they’re making a real push to get him for a second stint.

Cancelo wants to leave Al-Hilal after a year and a half in Saudi Arabia, and he’s been talking with clubs about a loan move. Both Barcelona and Juventus checked in, but Inter actually got further along with negotiations. The catch? Al-Hilal wants whoever gets him to pay half of his €15 million yearly salary, which means €3.75 million just for the rest of this season. Some reports out of Barcelona said the club couldn’t agree on whether to bid for Cancelo, who’s now 31.

But here’s the latest: Fabrizio Romano says Barcelona has gone ahead and put in an offer for Cancelo. The thing is, they’re only willing to pay a small chunk of his salary. Talks are still going. Meanwhile, Al-Hilal already has a deal lined up with Inter to send Cancelo back to Serie A, but Cancelo himself wants to see if there’s any way he can return to Camp Nou.

There’s another wrinkle—Hansi Flick, Barcelona’s new coach, isn’t sold on Cancelo. He’d actually rather the club spend on a central defender instead. Even though Cancelo can play on both sides as a full-back or push further up the field, and he’s got all the technical skills you could ask for, Flick’s worried that using him at full-back would make the defence even shakier. Xavi learned that the hard way last season when Barcelona lost to PSG and Real Madrid in quick succession, which pretty much ended their hopes. So now, it’s up in the air—does Barcelona go for Cancelo’s flair, or do they tighten things up at the back like Flick wants?

Robert Lewandowski’s future at Barcelona is up in the air again. He’s down to the last six months of his contract, and honestly, the club seems ready to move on. He’s 37 now, and since coming over from Bayern Munich in 2022, he’s done everything they could’ve asked for.

He scored again in Barcelona’s win against Espanyol over the weekend, but it doesn’t look like he’s getting a new contract. So, he’ll probably have to find a new club—or just hang up his boots. He talked about this on the High Performance podcast, and you can tell he’s been thinking about life after football.

“I’m not afraid to finish my career because I’m starting to prepare for it, to prepare things that I can do after football. I know football is a big part of my life, but it’s not everything, especially now.

“When I was younger, all I thought about was football, football, football. Now, I know the end is close. I don’t know if I’ve got one, two, three, or maybe four years left—who knows? I don’t feel any pressure. If one day my body tells me it’s time, I’ll be ready to move on.”

When Lewandowski first landed at Barcelona, the club wanted him to be more than just a goal scorer. They asked him to help guide the younger players.

“At Bayern, the mentality was different—more experienced, tougher players. When I got to Barcelona, I saw a lot of young guys who needed to push themselves harder. The club told me they needed someone like me to show them that staying at the top isn’t just about a few good weeks. It’s about what you do off the pitch, too. The gym work, the daily grind—it all matters. But as I got to know everyone, I realised the culture in Spain isn’t the same as in Germany. I learned from them, too. Empathy, all the stuff that goes on around football. It’s helped me a lot.”