FC Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez has addressed rumors linking Ansu Fati to bitter rivals Real … [+] Madrid.
Getty ImagesFC Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez has addressed transfer buzz linking Ansu Fati with a possible move to the club’s bitter enemies Real Madrid in his pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Cadiz, asking: „Are you joking?“
The rumors seems to have emerged after Cadena SER contributor Antonio Romero said: „[If] I’m [Madrid president] Florentino Perez, I’m going for Ansu Fati, [the way] things are [going]. [There are just] three attackers at Real Madrid this season, they seem short [of forwards] to me.“
Furthermore, in a radio rant on COPE earlier this year, the player’s father Bori Fati didn’t rule out a switch for the La Masia graduate to the Catalans‘ eternal enemy.
„I’m not going to criticize Real Madrid because life takes many turns and you never know what can happen,“ said Bori Fati, chiding his son for being „asleep“ and not listening to him because of the magnitude of Barca as a club and institution.
Probed on the unlikely sale on Friday, however, Xavi asked rhetorically: „Ansu to Madrid? Are you joking?“
„With Ansu I was already very forceful last week. He is the club’s heritage now and in the future. You can’t be clearer [on that],“ Xavi added.
„Sterile debates are being generated with Ansu and I don’t understand it. He is a player who belongs to Barca and we count on him.
„He is in good shape and we are very happy with his performance. Hopefully we finish talking about all this because it does not make sense,“ the manager went on.
This being said, however, and Barca’s financial economic woes being what they are, Xavi again couldn’t rule out a potential offloading of the 20-year-old or others including Marcos Alsono whose futures are in doubt.
„We have a difficult situation with the issue of [Financial] Fair Play,“ Xavi pointed out.
„It comes from behind and it is a complex situation that we are struggling with. You see it on the subject of registrations. In the end we will have to assess and bet on the priorities for the team and make decisions based on this,“ Xavi concluded.
With a spot on the right wing available after Raphinha, along with Xavi, picked up a red card in last weekend’s 0-0 stalemate with Getafe, Fati is in a race to snap up the berth alongside Ferran Torres and Lamine Yamal.
In light of his impressive cameos against Tottenham Hotspur and Getafe as of late, however, teen sensation Yamal, 16, has emerged as a likely candidate to get his first ever start in La Liga at the Montjuic Stadium on Sunday evening.