Touted as one of the future greats of football, Ansu Fati has received some big offers to leave the club but has remained adamant to succeed with the Catalan giants.
Although there was an option to extend his previous contract by two years, his recent form after coming back from an injury has played a crucial role in persuading the owners to give him a long-term contract.
The intention has always been to get a new contract for Fati and youngsters Pedri and Gavi, but it was getting difficult for them to prove these players lucrative deals with the club’s current financial turmoil. The La Liga club already sanctioned the departure of Antoine Griezmann (Atletico) and Lionel Messi (PSG) to ease the wage burden on the club, and they are still way above the wage cap set by La Liga.
The Catalans are currently working on improving their position to stay within the new limitations and have been offered some time to settle their new deals. Just after Pedri had signed a similar deal last week, Fati joined the club of players with a staggering 1 billion euros release clause.
The 18-year-old has received interest from Manchester City earlier this season, but he opted to remain in Spain to further his development. Barcelona also turned down a 150 million euro bid from Manchester United last summer, as reported by Mundo Deportivo.
The Spaniard came second to Erling Haaland last year in the chase for the Golden Boy award. Injuries kept him away for a major part of the ongoing edition, but the youngster came back with a bang and has restored parity among the club faithful. He made 47 appearances across all competitions since making his debut in 2019 and went on to hog plenty of attention from the globe.
After spending over 300 days on the sideline nursing a knee injury, Fati, who was given the iconic number 10 jersey after Messi’s departure, walked out in front of the fans for the first time in that jersey in the 79th minute of the La Liga fixture against Levante (3-0; September 26).
He was in the mix straight away, making some stellar runs through the left flank. To cap off a sensational comeback into the side, he scored a brilliant added-time goal, smashing it from just outside the box to power it past Aitor Fernandez.
He then scored the second goal of his season against Valencia (3-1, October 17), where he ran in from his wing, cut inside, played a sweet one-two with Memphis Depay before launching it into the goal.
On Wednesday, Barcelona registered a 1-0 win against Dynamo Kyiv at home, having lost both their games in the Champions League group stages earlier. Fati’s blistering return is expected to boost their season upward, and he is shouldering massive responsibilities.
