Football cannot be reduced solely to numbers. That is the grace, the secret, the reason for its success. That in addition to money and data, the spherical world is moved by feeling, imagination, talent and that little bit of luck. All difficult intangibles, no matter how much it is done every summer in the transfer market, to quantify. That is why Ansu Fati is not just another player.
The story matters. With him, if possible, more than with others. It was renewed until 2027. He was the second, after Pedri, to have a clause of 1,000 million euros. And in August 2021, after Leo Messi left the entity in tears, the club thought of giving the Barça number 10 to the youth squad, who accepted the challenge, an inheritance of those that weigh. In a good marketing coup, the 10 shirt did not leave the house and fell back on a boy trained at La Masia.
In other words, Fati must be valued for what he has meant -he is the second youngest rookie in an official match and the earliest goalscorer in the Champions League-, for what he is currently -the second highest scorer in the squad (10 goals) being the attacker who has played the fewest minutes– and for what he can become if he recovers the explosiveness with which he broke into and dazzled the elite until the serious injury to his left knee, in November 2020, broke his progression.
That it has cost him to return is evidence. That she is still on her way after a course of ups and downs is another. His idyll with the goal is beyond doubt. Likewise, he has plenty of time left to reach his zenith. “You have a phenomenon. He is going to be the Ballon d’Or one day, ”predicted his agent, Jorge Mendes.
The striker will start the season still 20 years old. And he has no doubt that he wants to continue wearing the Blaugrana shirt. “I have a contract with Barça and my intention is to continue improving and growing there. That is my intention. I have a contract and I am happy at the club, ”he said on Sunday in Rotterdam, after winning the Nations League with Spain. It was not the first time. Thus ignore the rumors of sale that have accompanied him for a few months.
In the club numbers are made to balance the box. In the case of a transfer, being a youth squad, everything entered by Fati would be benefits. The temptation is to see it as a lever, a label that Frenkie de Jong wanted to hang last summer and the Dutch footballer has ended up being a mainstay. Getting rid of one of La Masia’s pearls would be a risk and a terrible message for the next promises since he has barely enjoyed 4,500 minutes and footballers like Vermaelen (42), Christanval (43), Simão (45), Arturo Vidal (51 ) or Gudjohnsen (58) had more opportunities than him as a starter.
After his arrival at the elite, Ansu Fati has spent two hard years and, this year, despite not having taken off definitively, he is beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. He has won his first League with Barça, he has known the World Cup and he has also lifted his first title with the Spanish team.
After the serious injury and the tortuous recovery, if the 22-23 season has served anything, it is to teach a physically strong and resistant Fati. In the absence of spark, no one can deny that he has endured the concatenation of efforts with flying colors. He ends the season with 56 matches under his belt: 51 for the Blaugrana and 5 for the red. The figure is not negligible because in his first three seasons in the elite –two of them very peculiar– he played 62 in total.
But it is also that it is the way in which it has reached May and June. In recent games is when he has been seen best. He scored three goals in the last two league games – two against Mallorca and one against Celta – and in both the semifinal and final of the Nations League, coach De la Fuente used him as the first boost. A bet that the striker appreciated, especially when they called him due to Nico Williams’ injury. “I came at the last minute but what the coach and the staff at this concentration transmitted to me is that they trusted me. Every time I’ve gone out I’ve tried to give my best.” His happiness was more than justified.
There are footballers whose smile is intangible, contagious and announces rebirth and success. Barça knows it from the good times of Ronaldinho. Ansu Fati is one of those.
