Ansu Fati: Why Barcelona’s heir to Lionel Messi has moved to Brighton

Xavi gave Barcelona’s squad three days off after their thrilling 4-3 victory at Villarreal last Sunday.

Ansu Fati, who played 14 minutes from the bench, decided to spend the break in his hometown of Herrera, a village about an hour’s drive from Seville in the south of Spain.

He was accompanied by his family and closest friends. One of them was the personal trainer he’s hired to help keep him injury-free and with whom he kept working during his time off. But above anything else, Fati spent most of the past three days wondering about his future.

Sunday’s game at Villarreal showed Xavi had at least four forwards ahead of Fati in Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Ferran Torres — if not five, when including Abde Ezzalzouli. Only two can be starters in Barca’s four-midfielder system.

This is not a new situation for Fati. The 20-year-old dealt with constant rumours over his position at the club since the start of the summer.

Fati’s agent, Jorge Mendes, tested the waters over a departure in June, to which the player responded with no hesitation: “I want to succeed at Barcelona, I’m staying.”

But a lot changed in less than three months. After a decent pre-season, scoring two goals and offering more of a spark, he did not start any of the first three matches of the new La Liga campaign.

Fati’s entourage had been open to a fresh start for a long time. On top of Mendes, his camp features many voices — and some radical ones.

In March, Fati’s father Bori was interviewed by Spanish radio station Cadena COPE without the club knowing about it. His words were pretty clear.

“Ansu wants to stay in Barcelona, but if it was down to me, I have my idea very clear. I’d go elsewhere,” he said.

“He is the No 10, the franchise player. I’m not happy with how the club is treating Ansu. Giving him one minute, two minutes, every game coming in as a sub. That’s what really annoys me.

“If it was down to me, I’d take him to our hometown in Sevilla and we would decide there.”

Well, that’s exactly what happened this week.

At the family reunion in Herrera, even Mendes stopped by. The conclusion was reflected in a call between Fati and Xavi on Wednesday.

On the phone, Fati outlined his concerns over game time and how he believed he needed to start more matches to rediscover his best.

Xavi, just like every time he has spoken with Fati of late, could not offer any such guarantee. Fati decided the best option for him was to leave. Finally, he’s agreed to what his father and his agent have been advising for months.

Mendes began putting the word around that Fati was available. The structure of the offer was always a loan, with no buy option included.

Two of the clubs he reached were Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs were tempted and decided to include Fati on a shortlist of wide players to possibly follow up on. When Fati made the call to Xavi on Wednesday afternoon, north London was his most likely destination. Fati seemed convinced about joining Spurs, according to sources close to the player, who have requested anonymity to protect relationships.

But late on Wednesday night, Brighton suddenly emerged as contenders.

Manager Roberto De Zerbi called Fati, offering him a whole perspective of his footballing style and how crucial a role he would play in it. The style the Italian established during his first season at Brighton also convinced Mendes to advise Fati to take up the option.

Fati, on the hunt for a platform to shine away from the pressure of being Barcelona’s No 10, quickly agreed.

Looking from the outside, you can hardly imagine a better setting to help Fati rediscover his best than De Zerbi’s project at Brighton, who will cover almost all of Fati’s salary.

Fati is a versatile attacker who broke out at Barcelona operating as a left-winger cutting inside. Fitting him into that role would be tricky at Brighton given they have Kaoru Mitoma there, but Fati can play more centrally from the start.

The biggest talent he has shown since his early breakthrough at Barcelona is the ability to score. His outstanding instincts in front of goal, combined with his game-reading ability, make him a specialist in taking up dangerous positions at the right time. To make the most of his skill set, he needs to be close to the box

Fati’s technique is very good, he is comfortable taking the ball in tight spaces and he should add another dimension to Brighton’s attack. He will be driven by a hunger to reinstate his name to the place it used to be. In 2020, he finished second in the Golden Boy award for best young player in Europe, sandwiched between Erling Haaland in first and Alphonso Davies in third.

For all the positives, there are potential pitfalls for Brighton — there have to be for Barcelona to let him go.

Fati was just 16 years and 298 days old when he made his Barca debut in August 2019 against Real Betis. He caused a sensation. Thirteen months later, he was playing and scoring for Spain’s senior side. Two years after his club debut, he was given Barcelona’s No 10 jersey, filling the symbolic gap left by Lionel Messi’s painful departure.

But in truth, Fati’s career path changed drastically from the moment he ruptured a meniscus in his left knee in November 2020, forcing him to have surgery.

There are conflicting versions of what happened. Some claim the surgery didn’t go well, others believe his recovery was not managed correctly. What’s beyond doubt is that he suffered setbacks from the injury and needed practically a whole year to return to the team in decent condition. His initial recovery period was set for four months.

In November 2021, when he returned to action, he suffered a significant hamstring tear that ruled him out for a long spell again.

Some experts recommended Fati have surgery on his hamstring to heal it completely. However, after the setbacks on his first knee problems, Fati was averse to further operations and tried to avoid an intervention by all means.

Fati followed a conservative treatment instead and some Barcelona sources believe he has never been able to fully recover from his hamstring injury as a result. They believe he has lost some of the explosiveness that defined his breakout in Spanish football. Those claims are strongly denied by his camp.

“Ansu has already been four years at the football elite and from a physical perspective, he’s super good right now,” his father Bori said in March.

“He is even quicker and more explosive than before. When Fati has confidence, he gets faster. He’s as strong as a bull.”

When anyone saw him play during the second half of last season, though, it was not hard to tell that Fati was pretty anxious. Anxious to score, to make things happen, to return to his ‘wunderkind’ status as soon as possible. And nothing good came out of that.

Despite all those problems on and off the pitch, Fati finished the season with 10 goals and four assists from 1,824 minutes (the equivalent of 20 90-minute matches) in all competitions. The raw talent is still there and everyone who’s been close to him in recent years is convinced of how much he can still improve.

This is where De Zerbi, one of this year’s biggest managerial sensations, will try to help.

(Top photo: Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images)