Barcelona talent Ansu Fati could be sacrificed this summer as the club look to comply with La Liga financial regulations it has emerged.
The Blaugrana forward’s future has been complicated in recent months by his injury record, and the 20-year-old has started just 9 La Liga games this season as he has often been overlooked by Barca boss Xavi.
The Catalan club are in financial disarray once more despite their many levers economic activated last summer, and need to make money via sales to balance the books this summer.
At the beginning of March, La Liga president Javier Tebas revealed that ‘As of today, Barcelona doesn’t have any room in its budget to spend in the upcoming transfer window’.
‘Barcelona has been involved in questionable behaviour which has had an impact on LaLiga and we are acting accordingly. We have ruled that they can no longer sign more players”.
‘In the case of Barcelona, they have to drop spending on wages and transfers from £532m to £399m (€650m to €450m), so it’s a budget of minus £177m (€200m).
“We can’t rule out the sale of an attacking player in the summer”, the Barcelona President explained.
“When Memphis Depay left us, we could have signed a forward, but the economic reality is very difficult and we can’t rule out the sale of an attacker”.
As per El Chiringuito TV, it is Fati that is the most likely to depart, with Ferran Torres and Raphinha both preferred by Xavi.
“His market price for him is between 40 and 50 million euros, according to Barça and Jorge Mendes himself”, they report.
Fati’s future has been further complicated by recent comments made by his father, in which he urged his son to depart the Camp Nou.
“If it was up to me, I would take him [to another team] but [Ansu] wants to stay at Barcelona”, he explained.
“He does not want to sign for another club, but I want to see him succeed. As a dad, I am angry. Seeing Ansu play so little winds you up a little bit and sometimes I think as a father, not a coach.”
Should Fati opt to depart, there are set to be no shortage of suitors for his talent, with the Premier League his most likely destination. Still just 20-years-old, a move could help reignite his stalling career, while it would also help Barcelona cut their massive wage bill and deficit in order to do business of their own.
