Why Barcelona star Jules Kounde is often late — Former teammate offers an explanation

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Sempre Barca

·12 Agustus 2025

Why Barcelona star Jules Kounde is often late — Former teammate offers an explanation

Jules Kounde is one of the key players at Barcelona, and for good reason. The Frenchman, beyond just his versatility, offers a lot of quality and consistency. Unfortunately, he does have his own fair share of problems away from the pitch.

Last season, it was a rather consistent and humorous occurrence to see Kounde be late for training or meetings and then be penalised by Hansi Flick. However, a former La Masia defender who played with Kounde at Sevilla recently shared his opinion on why he thinks this happens with the Frenchman.

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Sergi Gomez, as quoted by SPORT, recalled a day during an interview with El After de Post United when the Frenchman arrived extremely late to training because he had apparently overslept:

“I remember during lockdown, when we had already started training again, that he showed up one day when we were already showered and everything because he had overslept.”

As for why he tends to oversleep, Gomez had a theory for that as well:

“You know what I think? Since he likes the NBA so much, I think he sleeps during the day. Then at night he stays up watching NBA games.”

Beyond just his tendency to oversleep and be late to training, Gomez also talked about the Barcelona star’s unique fashion taste:

“He already came in with extravagant looks. That’s where it started, and he would tell us: ‘Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, you’ll see.’ And in the end, the guy has his own very distinctive style.”

As for his personal relationship with the Frenchman, Gomez spoke about that as well:

“I have a very good relationship with him, because in the end… You can take it as bad competition or as good competition, right? I’ve always taken it as good. I’ve had a good relationship with my competitors because, in the end, that only lasts for a certain time in your life, but life itself is much longer. It takes the same effort to do it badly as it does to do it well.”

As for what is next for Kounde, the Barcelona star is expected to renew his contract with the club soon. Everything seems to be in place for him to do so, and it now looks to be only a matter of time before it is completely finalised.