After more than half a year without doing this, Ansu Fati returned to Barcelona's starting line-up against RCD Mallorca, because they won a 1-0 victory on the islanders. The previous start of Fati met Sevilla on October 20, but his appearance at Montjuic is perhaps one of his last outings in the Blaugrana.
The Barcelona attacker is starving from playing time under Hansi Flick, and his camp is said to be unhappy with the German manager, the feeling that Fati has been robbed unfairly. Flick spoke positively about the 22-year-old in the preseason, but after months without playing his tune changed and Flick became critical of his performances in training.
Fati got the chance to leave loan in January, but decided not to leave, the feeling that he would get playing time in the second half of the season. After he has not convinced Flick, it seems that his days are numbered at the club. It was recently claimed that Fati has decided that he must go somewhere else to continue his career.
According to Jijantes, his agent Jorge Mendes is currently on his way to Barcelona to meet the club and discuss the future of the young attacker. That will be one of the many topics on the table with Mendes, who has a number of Barcelona players in his books, as well as the contract renewal for Lamine Yamal. The 17-year-old is due to a bumper contract extension, but Barcelona has little room in their salary limit.
What will help them is the recent change in La Liga rules. This week it was announced that La Liga clubs could renew players under the age of 24 who had been in the club for three consecutive seasons, even if they have no room in their salary limit, which means they have time until the end of the season to make the difference – if they don't, that amount would be deducted from the limit for the next season.