Ansu Fati: Barça prodigy to be promoted to senior team
Mundo Deportivo reports that the 16-year-old's astronomical rise will continue with his registration for the full team and a release clause of €200m.
Ansu Fati will celebrate his 17th birthday in a couple of weeks and the Barcelona wunderkind is set to receive a present from the club after his astronomical rise from the youth ranks to international fame this season by being definitively promoted to the first team squad.
Fati, who has been fast-tracked into the Spain under-21 squad after receiving citizenship, exploded onto the scene at the beginning of the season when he was called up by Ernesto Valverde to cover for the absences in attack of Leo Messi, Ousmane Dembélé and Luis Suárez but far from making up the numbers, the youngster showed such composure that he has now made six appearances in LaLiga and the Champions League, scoring twice and providing one assist – numbers that outstrip Messi as it stands and make him the club’s joint third-highest scorer so far this campaign.
Ansu Fati handed new contract at Barcelona
The 16-year-old signed a new contract in July when still firmly an under-19 player that tied him to the club until 2022 and had him on a pay scale depending on how many appearances he made for the youth teams, Barça B and the senior side up to a maximum of one million euros per season with a release clause of 100 million euros.
Now Catalan media outlet Mundo Deportivo reports that Barça want to revise that deal already and hand Fati a rise to a minimum salary of one million euros while doubling his release clause to 200 million.
Although Fati’s original release clause is a record for a player of his age, Barcelona believe it is not prohibitive enough to deter some of Europe’s biggest spenders and want to ensure that no club comes in for the 16-year-old on the blind side as he is viewed as a natural successor to the current front line with Messi and Suárez both now 32 years old.