Jesse Bisiwu's Journey at FC Barcelona: From Signing to First Team

Jesse Bisiwu walked into FC Barcelona’s first-team training on August 1 as the club’s newest €8.5 million bet on the future. Weeks of hard bargaining with Club Brugge had finally ended, the paperwork was done, and the 18-year-old winger suddenly found himself under Hansi Flick’s gaze.

Two weeks on, he is still there. Still in with the seniors. Still surviving the first big filter of the Flick era.

Holding his place in Flick’s group

With the internationals back and the usual summer crowd of academy hopefuls being thinned out, many youngsters have already been sent back to the reserves or parked on separate training plans while they wait for moves. Bisiwu is not among them.

He has stayed put with the first team, a small but significant early victory in a squad where every training bib feels like a statement. Inside the club, he is being treated as one of Flick’s players, not a temporary guest from the youth ranks.

The rollout has followed the classic big-club script: media noise around his signing, his name added to the first-team list on the club’s official channels, and then the real test — minutes on the pitch.

A nervous debut, a clear ceiling

Those first minutes came in a preseason friendly against Udinese. Bisiwu came off the bench and played around half an hour. It was not a showreel debut. The nerves were obvious, the rhythm uneven, and only flashes of the talent that convinced Barça to push for him came through.

Still, those glimpses were enough to fuel the early comparisons that have followed him: the change of pace, the dribbling angles, the ability to unbalance a defender one-on-one. Inside the dressing room, some see shades of Ousmane Dembele in his profile, even if the end product is not there yet.

His teammates have already recognised the raw material. Training sessions have underlined that he is different, that he has something. But they have also underlined how far he has to go if he wants to truly belong at this level.

On his first day in the Barça shirt, one flaw jumped out: pressing. The collective work without the ball is not yet second nature to him. Flick’s staff have marked that down as a priority. So is finishing. The power is there, the intention too, but the accuracy of his shooting still needs a serious upgrade.

Left wing, big competition

For now, Flick has a clear idea of where he sees him. Both in training and in that Udinese debut, Bisiwu has been used on the left flank, his preferred side. It is also one of the most crowded zones in the squad.

Raphinha and Anthony Gordon stand in his way there, two established options fighting for heavy minutes. Bisiwu can switch to the right if needed, but he feels freer and more natural on the left, where he can drive at defenders and open the pitch on his stronger side.

The next checkpoint arrives on Sunday, when he is expected to feature prominently again in preseason action against Basel. Another chance to convince, another chance to show he is more than a summer headline.

Flick’s long-term project

Within the club, Bisiwu is being spoken of as one of the most exciting young prospects to arrive in recent years. That brings pressure, but also patience. Flick and his staff see him as a project to be polished, not an instant solution.

The idea is clear: shape him into a player ready for the elite, not just a bright cameo in August. That means teaching him when to press, when to risk, when to simplify. It means turning those Dembele-like flashes into consistent, decisive actions.

Bisiwu, for his part, has set his own target. He wants a permanent place in the first-team squad. Not a hybrid role, not a season bouncing between the reserve side and the seniors.

The question now is whether he can turn this promising start — staying with the first team while others are quietly moved aside — into something more permanent. At a club like Barça, potential buys you time. It does not guarantee you a place.