A year ago, Manchester United approached a 16-year-old Barcelona academy forward to work out if there was a way of spiriting his precocious goalscoring out of La Masia for a few hundred thousand euros of Fifa-mandated compensation. They were not alone in their attempted enticement.
From the Premier League — where any move was dependent on the Guinea-Bissau-born teenager first securing an EU passport — Newcastle United also made their interest clear. Ligue 1 offers came from Monaco and Nice. From the Bundesliga, those accomplished recruiters of stratospherically mobile attacking talents, Borussia Dortmund, sought a signature.
Though Ansu Fati did not want to leave Barcelona, he and his father Bori were unimpressed with the club’s plan for the coming season. Barça wanted the forward to