Ansu Fati has made a long trip from the fields of
Guinea-Bissau, where he played as a child, to
Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium where the 16-year-
old is playing with some of the biggest stars in the
world.
Fati’s has made a stirring start to the season,
scoring just two minutes into his full La Liga debut
on a magical night when he hardly put a foot wrong
in front of over 80,000 astonished Camp Nou fans
who gave him a standing ovation as he left the
field.
He was just seven years old when he first came to
Spain and his startling talent meant he was invited
to join Barcelona’s prestigious youth academy ‘La
Masia’ aged 10.
It was an incredible achievement for a boy from the
impoverished West African nation that has never
been known for football.
In Sao Paulo, his home neighbourhood in the
rundown suburbs of capital Bissau, the children yell
“Ansu Fati, Barca player!” as they run around on
ochre soil, under the tropical trees.
Malam Romisio, who coached Fati as a child, told
AFP how the boy used to play football wearing only
socks or plastic sandals, easily dribbling the ball
past bigger, stronger teammates.
When Fati made his debut with Barca’s first team at
the end of August,
the coach switched his
allegiance from Real Madrid.
‘If he continues like this, he will be a great player,”
he predicted.
In Guinea Bissau, which is one of the world’s
poorest and most fragile nations, Fati is a source of
national pride.
Born on October 31, 2002, he lived in Bissau until
he was six.
In the house where he grew up, Fati’s uncle Djibi
Fati shows photos of the footballer as a child,
dressed in traditional clothes, recalling how others
used to tease him for his love of bread and butter.
“Every time he came back from playing football, he
would ask for it,” he recalls.
– Family divided, reunited in Spain –
When he was still very small, his father, Bori Fati,
went to Portugal to look for work, later settling near
Seville in southwestern Spain.
Bori picked olives, collected empty glasses in
nightclubs and even helped build a high-speed rail
track, recalls Amador Saavedra, who befriended him
in Herrera, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of
Malaga.
It was only when the Communist mayor of
Marinaleda, a nearby town, hired Bori as a driver
and helped him financially, that he managed to
bring his young family over in 2009.
“It’s a very beautiful story,” said Saavedra, 53.
Bori ended up training his young son at the
Peloteros football school, which is free for
thousands of children in Herrera and the surrounding
towns.
– Cheerful but quiet –
When Fati arrived he quickly caused a sensation on
the football pitch, said Jordi Figaroa Moreno, his
first Spanish coach.
“He had a gift,” he told AFP. “The difference
between him and his teammates was just huge,
both technically and tactically. Among the
youngsters, it’s rare to find children who can play as
a team, but he had everything.”
Jose Luis Perez Mena, who runs the Peloteros
school, described Fati as “very spontaneous” and
“very cheerful” as well as “extroverted, but very
quiet”.
His stellar success “has not gone to his head”.
Within a year of arriving in Spain, Fati joined Sevilla.
In 2012, at the age of 10, he was enrolled in
Barcelona’s youth system.
“Ansu was one of the youngest players ever to have
entered La Masia,” said Marc Serra, his first coach
at Barcelona.
“From the day that he arrived he was different, the
type of player who invents football.”
– ‘Mind-blowing’ –
In August, the teenager became the youngest player
to score for Barcelona in La Liga. This month he
became the club’s youngest player in a Champions
League match.
Spain’s national coach Robert Moreno described
Fati’s debut for Barcelona as “mind-blowing”.
Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde spoke of him as
a “balanced boy” who is “at ease with himself”.
“We want him to learn to know himself, to know the
first division, so he sees that it is hard and how
much work and dedication it will take to succeed,”
he said.
Speaking to Spain’s Onda Cero radio last month, his
proud father said he had taught Fati to “be
respectful and happy with everyone”.
“Every day I tell him: ‘This is your job: when you
have the ball, turn towards the goal, don’t look
anywhere else, and just shoot.”
Young-po Reporters 