Ansu Fati does not rest from the physical or emotional torment. The Barça player was injured again this Wednesday in training, a muscle problem in the femoral biceps of his right leg that will keep him off the field for four weeks, as FC Barcelona announced this Wednesday. A new setback and setback in his career, marked by expectations, but above all by his physical problems: in total, 615 days off the playing field, 123 games lost since 2020, when he broke his knee.
He excited a Barcelona fan base devoid of icons after the goodbye of Leo Messi, and ended up losing himself in the squad, without minutes with Xavi Hernández, and without minutes with De Zerbi at Brighton during the year of his loan. On his return home with Flick, the future looked hopeful again, with confidence in a new opportunity for Ansu Fati. The reality? He missed part of the preseason, and this season he has only participated in seven games – only one of them at the start -, with a total of 158 minutes despite his efforts to get in shape. And the assists and goals that projected the player as a promise? No trace.
Mired in a constant enigma of why he does not return to the same level he showed in his day. For the medical bodies, Fati cannot do prolonged efforts: a possible problem in the hamstring—short hamstring syndrome, that is, more stiffness in the muscle—that would not allow him to do continuous races. Physical efforts that are an obstacle and that could explain their lack of explosiveness and sprint in the matches. For his colleagues, it is a problem of trust, shared thinking in the same direction with people who know him, which he recognizes as a mental issue.
But when he returned to Barcelona, he had the trust of the club and Flick. At the beginning of the preseason, due to the performance he showed in training combined with the short squad, the German coach counted on him. But when he was at his best, he was injured again: plantar fasciitis prevented him from continuing, traveling to the friendly tour of the United States and also starting this season. “We have to help Ansu come back stronger,” the coach said then. With the arrival of the German coach – a faithful supporter of the quarry – the young player was promised a second chance, a guide to renew his life in Barcelona and a new horizon. Flick trusted Fati, and Fati also trusted Flick: the coach explained to him what his role in the team would be, and the Blaugrana accepted, happy with the coach to see that he was not deceived. He debuted, briefly, against Monaco on September 19. “It has really good quality. I saw him last week and also when we started the preseason. I see it well. But I think it needs some time now. We worry about him because it is important that the players can play and not get injured again,” Flick confessed after the match.
Since he returned, his prominence has been scarce, also diminished by the emergence of a great version of Raphinha. He has only played seven of the 17 possible games, failing to pass 26 minutes played per game in six of them. Only in the duel against Sevilla – the only one in which he started, replacing Eric García after leaving the warm-up injured – did he reach 76 minutes. Matches in which he has not scored or assisted, performances without glory for him. When the Ciudad Deportiva began to talk about the need to gain confidence to recover the level, the youth player was injured again. There have been up to 12 interruptions due to physical problems in the last five years.
Much earlier, he took off at Barcelona, breaking the precocity records that Lamine Yamal now shatters. He was the great sensation, coming out of the quarry and landing in a team of stars like Messi, Luis Suárez and Griezmann. A career that was predicted to be promising and that led him to be part of the bulk of players of the superagent Jorge Mendes, always attentive to emerging talent. But on November 7, 2020, he tore his meniscus in a match against Betis. 305 days off the pitch, four interventions. As a result, a string of physical problems. After Messi’s departure, Barcelona fans were left without figures, and all eyes were on Fati. He lent himself as an icon, he inherited the 10, but also the weight of the jacket and the enthusiasm, at only 18 years old. And it renewed until 2027, with a termination clause of one billion euros. He became the culé savior, but goals were scarce, injuries dogged him, and in 2023 a round trip to Brighton was decided. Now there are those who claim that, perhaps, his takeoff was precipitated by Barcelona’s needs.
He went to the Premier in search of finding himself, of new air and rebirth. But, once again, another physical setback—a calf injury—derailed his progression and left him out of the team from the end of November to February of that season. He missed 14 games. “He has to give something more, because what he is doing is not enough. […] He needs to improve his performances, his physical condition and his mentality,” De Zerbi confessed in April. The coach stopped counting on him, and he ended his failed assignment with four goals in 27 games and with more and more minutes on the bench than on the pitch.
Now the injuries punish him again, and his torment continues. Fati, meanwhile, gets lost on a path that was hopeful, and he wants it to be again.
