The day that Ansu Fati changed his chip and kickstarted his career

In football, the road to success is covered in potholes. Ansu Fati has suffered a lot on his still-short journey. At 19, he has had three serious injuries but has not given up. He wants to triumph at Camp Nou and is working tirelessly to do it. In 2018-19 he ended to make a change to get his career on track and go from being one of the most promising La Masia talents to an exciting and immense reality.

Ansu started his first year at Juvenil A at 15 and a lot of doubts around him. He had a seductive offer from Nice and his renewal was not clear. Although alongside Takefusa Kubo he was one of the most exciting talents in the youth set-up, in the squad coached by Denis Silva and Oscar Lopez he was not among the players with the most minutes. “There were players who forced themselves more,” a club source said. “We had no doubt he would end up playing but he had to earn it.” That arrived in the middle of the season, when he realised himself he was close to becoming a professional and “he started to control all the details necessary to take the definitive step forward”. 

It was a change of mentality. “He started to look after himself, follow the protocols in the gym, arrive first to training,” a member of the technical team said. Ansu and Barca reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Youth League against Chelsea, who won on penalties, although Ansu scored twice.

“He started to ask us that we stay with him after the group sessions to practice finishing,” said a source. “In this era, each player had individual homework to do. Among them, the most disciplined, asked us more things. He got on well with Konrad de la Fuente, whose American culture of work and persistence helped him a lot. They pushed us a lot in terms of shots.”

The other factor that helped Ansu explode was footballing. The Juvenil A coaches decided they had to change his position and put him on the wing. 

“When he played striker or false nine, he came too deep to get the ball, taking up space for other players. He wanted to be in a lot of positions. He didn’t have his role defined exactly. Ansu is quick, can beat a man, and knows how to ‘appear’ inside. Going out to the wing allowed him to show his best self,” Denis Silva told Sport. He was one of the main people responsible for the call, and it was vital. “He needed around two months to adapt. He did not complain at any moment. He had spent his life being a big protagonist in the construction of the play. n one way he kept doing it, but with the videos and advice we gave him, he corrected it. Playing as a winger means you can’t participate constantly.”

Ansu ended up as the team’s top goalscorer. At the end of July 2019 he renewed until 2022. Although the idea was that he would keep being a leader for Juvenil A, and help the B team when needed, little over a month later, August 25, he made his debut for the first team. The rest is history.