Even though two matchdays still remain before the end of the first half of the LaLiga season, FC Barcelona have already been crowned winter champions mathematically. In other words, they are guaranteed to finish the first half of the domestic campaign top of the table. A clear sign of the improvements in the closing stretch of 2025, just as Hansi Flick promised a month ago.
So, it's a good moment to look back at what has happened in recent years when Barça have reached this stage of the season as Liga leaders.
Four out of five in the last 10 years
Over the last decade, this situation has occurred five times. In all but one of those seasons (2019/20) Barça went on to lift the league trophy. The successful campaigns were 2015/16, 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2022/23. These precedents offer plenty of reason for optimism about claiming this season’s league crown.
Encouraging precedents
In three of those cases, they ended up winning the title by 10 points or more. The only exception was 2015/16, when the side then coached by Luis Enrique edged Real Madrid by just one point. In the other seasons, Barça’s dominance was clear and allowed them to wrap up the championship several matchdays before the end.
21st century dominance
Looking more broadly at the 21st century as a whole, now approaching the end of its first quarter, the team have been winter champions on 13 occasions. That's more than half of all seasons played. An extraordinary figure, especially considering that 11 of those times Barça went on to be crowned champions. Only in 2013/14 and 2019/20 did Barça finish the first half of the season top and fail to end up with the trophy in the cabinet.
Last season Flick’s side did not finish the first half of the campaign in first place, ending it instead in third. Even so, they went on to win the 28th LaLiga title in club history. The job is far from done, but closing out 2025 in this position is a positive omen for 2026. Flick’s Barça know no limits when it comes to ambition.