The day that Ansu Fati was a step away from signing for Nice

Ansu Fati could go on to become a Barcelona legend but there was also the chance he could have left the club in 2018.

The No 10 is one of the most exciting players at Barca right now and he has come back a long way after getting injured 10 months ago.

According to Calciomercato, in December 2018 he might have joined Nice.

Everything was done. Agreements between both sides, pre-contracts prepared and all. The first movements between the French club and Ansu’s people were in November 2018, while in January 2019 the director of Nice flew to Barcelona to seal the deal. It was a time where Barca were negotiating for Jean-Clair Todibo, the then Nice defender.

The deal was so advanced that Ansu’s father, Bori Fati, posed with the No 9 shirt of Nice with Fati on the back.

However the transfer did not happen because Ansu’s EU passport did not arrive in time and to get it he had to keep playing in Spain.

Ansu then exploded in Barcelona and the club gave him a new deal in July 2019 with a 170m euro release clause. Nice were not the only team that tried to sign Ansu in that era.

Chelsea, West Ham and Juventus were also interested. The same media outlet says Bori had many conversations with all those team, but the passport stopped him leaving Spain. In one moment his father was tempted by Barcelona because they offered 50,000 euros more than Barcelona, but his then agent convinced him to sign his first professional deal with the Catalans.