When Ansu Fati made his debut for Barcelona three years ago, he never imagined how one act of Lionel Messi would change his life forever.
The name Ansu Fati was an unknown entity even when the footballer debuted for Barcelona. But a picture put out by Lionel Messi on his Instagram with the young footballer, after his debut run against Real Betis, suddenly catapulted him into a level of unprecedented fame.
Fati was a mere 16 years old at the time and starred for Barcelona in a 5-2 victory. It was a game where Luis Suarez, Leo Messi and Ousmane Dembele were all ruled out as injured.
Instantly, people started comparing Fati to Messi's successor, appointed by the man himself. The winger was flooded with 'millions' of notifications on his phone. It was a moment that continues to stay with the Barcelona winger to this day.
“After my debut match against Betis, Leo Messi waited for us in the dressing room to congratulate us on the victory. When I arrived, to my surprise, he took me in his arms!
“The team photographer took a picture of both of them and then Leo put it on his Instagram. With all the followers he has, of course, a lot of people liked the image and he started following me. After that, I got millions of notifications on my phone, he was crazy. I will never forget this gesture, I will be eternally grateful to him for it,” said Fati to France Football.
When Messi was coming up the ranks at Barcelona, most knew he was destined for greatness. But at the time, it still required a push from Ronaldinho to put his name outside of Spanish media circles as the next boy wonder of Barcelona.
In some way, Messi did the same for Fati. At a time when there was speculation as to who the next great La Masia graduate would be, the greatest Barcelona academy product took it upon himself to anoint his successor.
“For a player of his size to do this is something very important to me. I keep the photo preciously at home, forever. I remember Ronaldinho supported him a bit the same way in the early days of him. He did the same thing with me. This was a real source of additional motivation for me.”