Ansu Fati, the strange maturity of a prodigy footballer

“And this boy, what?

Don't you ever plan to go to school? "

The question, in a mocking tone, came from Luis Suárez.

The addressee of the joke was Ansu Fati (Guinea-Bissau, 2002), a 16-year-old boy who had taken records for himself at Barcelona: youngest player to score with the Barça shirt in LaLiga, holder with less age in Camp Nou, the newest scorer in the Champions League.

"Are you going to sign autographs? But do

signature?" Suárez continued his jokes.

The jokes were not accidental, in an environment of extreme competitiveness, even unbearable depending on what type of personality, it was the way that the Uruguayan found to integrate the surprising

Ansu Fati.

He drew attention for his goals (seven in 24 games in his first season at Barça), but also for his personality.

Ansu Fati likes to watch videos of players from whom he wants to learn movements.

Nothing extraordinary.

Although there are footballers who find it atrociously lazy to watch games, while others are obsessed with football.

But Fati goes a step further because she also immerses herself in interviews with athletes to capture how they speak, what words they use.

“He is too mature for his age.

He is 17 years old and looks like a 25-year-old ”, explains an employee of the club.

"It is not by chance what is happening to him," he says. The story is known that Ronaldinho and Deco asked where the little one was when they wanted to train with Messi. Now it was Messi, along with Luis Suárez, who made up Ansu. There is a detail that draws the attention of the people who surround the Barça dressing room: Ansu Fati always wears clothes from the brand that sponsors him. He avoids fancy clothes to go to training, he doesn't want any heavyweight to tell him: " What are you wearing like that, kid? "

“It is not easy for these guys to adapt to the first team.

They have many things to process.

It's not just football, it's everything that happens around.

And that is perhaps the most complicated.

Ansu has merit ”, explains the same source at the Joan Gamper Sports City.

After living a season in the house of his first agent, he got a flat so that the whole Fati family could leave Herrera (Andalusia) and move to Barcelona.

Later the club advised them to live in Sant Joan Despí, near the sports city.

They did.

Ansu took the habit of walking the nearly 500 meters that separate his house from Joan Gamper to go to training.

A routine that he did not want to change when he landed at the age of 16 in the first team;

in fact, he continued to use the La Masia entrance.

It didn't take long for the inevitable to happen: the fans that accumulate in the sports city pounced on the boy dressed in the same clothes as Messi but who was not driving a family super truck like him, or a spectacular sports car like Dembélé, but arrived on foot .

Ansu needed peace.

He asked his father to drive him to training every morning until he got his driver's license.

Ansu met his father Bori when he was six years old, since then they have become inseparable.

"They told me that I did not know how good Ansu was playing football, that he dribbled everyone," recalls Bori, who lived in Spain for work while his wife and children Braima,

Djeny and Ansu remained in Guinea-Bissau.

Thanks to the help of Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, mayor of Marinaleda, they achieved family reunification.

When they moved to Catalonia, the youngest son, Miguel, was born.

A little distrustful, Ansu clings to those friends who took care of him when no one knew him.

To those teammates who helped him when he was going through difficulties like Eric García —the player's father, who currently belongs to the City squad, took him on trips with the quarry when the Fatis couldn't— and essentially his family.

While most of his teammates in the Barça quarry used the salary that the club paid them for their expenses, Ansu gave it to his father.

It wasn't much, in 2015 for one of his first contracts he charged 5,000 euros per year.

Last summer, he turned down a 1.5 million offer to play for Chelsea.

By then Barça already treated him as one of the pearls of their grassroots football.

He did not know, however, its potential.

He gave the key to his career to Leo Messi's brother, Rodrigo.

But a year later Ansu preferred to give it a more professional sense and was represented by Jorge Mendes, Cristiano Ronaldo's agent.

With Manchester United lurking, Barça seeks to tie up its young promise and offers him a renewal with a clause of 300 million.

Meanwhile, Ansu continues as always. In other words, he breaks records - on September 6, after scoring against Ukraine, he became the youngest scorer with La Roja -, thinks of his family - he dedicated the goal with Spain to his sister - and bet on humility - it was the only one of the players not called up by Koeman who attended the two Barça friendlies. "The simplicity with which he assimilates being a Barcelona player is surprising," argued Valverde. "He puts a lot of interest and is very receptive to improving his repertoire," said Setién. Ansu Fati and that strange maturity of a prodigy footballer.