This is Barcelona in 2023, folks. A club so riddled with financial problems that those in charge have deemed the winger they handed Lionel Messi's No. 10 jersey to just two years ago unimportant to their plans this season. Injuries, inconsistency and a lack of confidence as a result have caused Ansu Fati to stagnate at the Catalan club, but his loan move to Brighton Hove Albion in the Premier League should remind everyone why the African-born attacker is among the most exciting young footballers in the world, and why the same team delighted to have offloaded the majority of his wages for the 2023/24 campaign decided he was fit enough to inherit its most famous shirt number in the first place, writes Soccer Laduma senior writer Kurt Buckerfield.
No Game Time Assurances At Barcelona
On the one hand, it is understandable that Xavi Hernandez believes he doesn't have the luxury of time to play Ansu Fati into form during what is his second full season in charge. On the other, it is perhaps disappointing to see what the consequences of financial pressure can be in modern football at one of the sport's biggest clubs. The 20-year-old Guinea Bissau forward is considered an enormous talent by everyone he has worked alongside and come up against, but has found himself unwanted, at least for this campaign, by Xavi who, during a phone call leading up to deadline day, made it clear to Fati that he couldn't give him assurances over his playing time. The winger, who had long been advised by his entourage and super-agent, Jorge Mendes, that a move away from Barcelona might be beneficial to his career, finally changed his mind and made it known he was open to other options before he eventually joined Brighton Hove Albion on a short-term deal, with the English side having agreed to cover most of his salary for the season. Years ago, this wouldn't have happened at the club with arguably the most famous youth academy, La Masia, in the world, but the economic problems the Catalans are facing have put Xavi and president Joan Laporta in a position where success is not only desired, but needed. Prize money brought in from advancing through cup competitions and winning LALIGA could go a long way in helping Barcelona go back to where they once were, and therefore Barcelona can't afford to carry any passengers. A low-on-confidence Fati won't serve the Blaugrana, and another season on the bench certainly won't do him any good.
Being Convinced By De Zerbi
His discussion with Xavi, though, wasn't the only crucial conversation he had before landing on a decision. According to reports, it was Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi who ultimately convinced Fati to join the Seagulls, who head into the international break having scored 12 goals in their opening four 2023/24 Premier League matches. The Italian tactician has charmed followers of England's top division ever since he was picked to replace Graham Potter a year ago, having introduced a brand of football not even Brighton's most optimistic fans would have imagined seeing at the American Express Community Stadium. De Zerbi has amassed an impressive 22 victories from the 43 matches he has overseen so far, with Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool among the teams to have fallen victim to his entertaining, effective and brave style. An awe-inspiring end to the 2022/23 campaign saw the Seagulls qualify for a place in Europe for the very first time in the club's history, with De Zerbi's men having been drawn against Ajax Amsterdam, Olympique Marseille and AEK Athens in Group B of the UEFA Europa League, which is set to begin later this month. Fati has all the tasty ingredients to help Brighton to yet another fruitful campaign, and it's important that he does.
Promise Before A String Of Bad Luck
The phrase "burst on to the scene" when talking about promising youngsters is perhaps overused, but Fati's debut season in Spain did feel like the beginning of something special in 2019. After coming off the bench to replace Carles Perez late on in the second half of a match against Real Betis, the then-16-year-old winger, brimming with confidence, looked right at home alongside his high-profile teammates in his first appearance before he contributed to three goals in his next two LALIGA matches. It wasn't long until Fati was called up to the Spanish national team by Luis Enrique, who has since left his position, with the attacker becoming his country's youngest-ever goalscorer in 2020, a record that has since been beaten by his club colleague Gavi. Almost exactly a month later, sadly, Fati suffered a meniscal laceration – the tearing of tissue in the knee – and only returned to the field 305 days later. That wasn't the last of his fitness troubles, however. In November 2021, just months after inheriting the No. 10 jersey from Messi following the Argentine's surprise free-agent departure, Fati was ruled out for three months due to a hamstring injury. Less than a week after returning to action, another hamstring injury saw him sidelined for four more months. Despite the setbacks he has experienced early on in his career, his record for Barcelona remains healthy. Just last season, the 20-year-old finished the campaign tied with Raphinha as the team's second-best goalscorer after he netted 10 times across all competitions in 51 appearances, many of those strikes coming after he came off the bench. But while his contribution in terms of goals and assists might not suggest this is a kid on the decline, what has been notable since Xavi's appointment has been the winger's lack of confidence and authority on the ball. His failure to help Spain at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where he featured just twice as a substitute, seemed to do little for his self-belief too. Upon returning from the global tournament, Fati was handed 10 starts and appeared in all but two of the Spanish giants' league matches until the end of the campaign, but failed to do enough to secure himself a spot in Xavi's plans for this season.
Does He Have A Future At Barca?
In England, Fati will be working under a manager who has total faith in his ability and whose track record of improving players speaks for itself. Solly March, for example, ended the 2021/22 campaign without scoring, but has become a regular contributor under De Zerbi. The 29-year-old has played a hand in 19 goals in his past 37 appearances, with three of those goals having come in his opening four matches of this season. Japan international Kaoru Mitoma, meanwhile, struggled for minutes under Potter following his arrival in 2022, but has established himself as one of the Premier League's most-feared attackers since the 43-year-old Italian replaced the Englishman. Fati will be reinvigorated and determined to show his parent club he is worthy of their historic shirt, and, with perhaps more potential than anyone in the Brighton squad, will be hoping his new boss takes him to even greater heights. Whether it will be enough to catch Xavi's attention, though, remains to be seen, but Barcelona were said to be only open to a straight loan move, meaning the Seagulls won't have the option to make his stay permanent. However, this isn't to suggest that the LALIGA champions would completely rule out selling the talented forward in future, with rumours over the past year having claimed that they have been open to letting him leave permanently due to the money they could earn from his sale. That is for another time, though, as Fati's sole focus until his loan deal in England expires should be football. Playing football, enjoying football, and becoming the player the world knows he can be.
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