Bartomeu confirms Barcelona received €150m bid for Fati from English side
Martin Macdonald
- 15 Oct 2021 10:43 BST
- 3 min read
Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has confirmed that the club received an offer of €150m from an unnamed Premier League side for wonderkid Ansu Fati.
At aged 10, Fati joined La Masia from the Sevilla youth ranks and from there has steadily gone through the age groups, impressing along the way.
In August of 2019, he made his debut for Barcelona, coming on as a substitute in a 5-2 victory over Real Betis.
The appearance would make him the second-youngest player ever to feature for the club, at 16 years and 298 days.
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He would subsequently become Barcelona's youngest ever goalscorer.
Fati is also the youngest player ever to score in the Champions League, the youngest ever to score two goals in a single La Liga game, and the youngest ever to record a goal and an assist in a single La Liga game.
He was officially promoted to the first team in 2020/21 and started the season superbly before suffering a serious knee injury that would ultimately see him miss nine months of action.
Fati has since returned and has been given Lionel Messi's number 10 shirt after the Argentine departed for Paris Saint-Germain.
He is viewed as the heir to Messi at the club and the player who will lead their attack for the foreseeable future.
Mammoth bid for Fati
Bartomeu, who was excited as Barcelona president a year ago, confirmed that Barcelona rejected a massive bid for Fati during his tenure.
"It was from an English club," he replied to Mundo Deportivo when asked if a bid of €150m was tabled.
"It would have been a direct benefit for the year 20-21 but at Barca, the sports project prevails and the economy continues."
Barcelona are currently in a perilous financial situation but are working hard on renewing Fati's contract which runs out in the summer of 2020.
Huge contracts for the likes of Messi and Antoine Griezmann among plenty of others has led to the club desperately attempting to cut costs due to losses in the pandemic.
Bartomeu says the club could have afforded the big contracts until the pandemic, and pointed to an article from Forbes naming Barcelona as the most valuable club in the world as proof.
"Until March 2020 we could afford the amounts that had been agreed," he continued.
"They are very high contracts, it is important because we are the most valuable club in the world. A few months ago, Forbes said it that way for the first time in 122 years of history. It is news of satisfaction.
"That in 2020, in the year of a pandemic, that we are number one in the world, contrasts with the mismanagement message since external organizations, such as LaLiga or Forbes, say so.
"The club has also been declared the best football club of the last decade. This allows you to have a solid base to continue progressing.
