FEATURE | Have Monaco found the formula to revive former wonderkid Ansu Fati? | OneFootball

“The past few weeks have been hard for him,” said Adi Hutter after Ansu Fati (22) netted a brace on his Ligue 1 debut for AS Monaco. It hasn’t just been weeks, it has been years.

The Spaniard broke through during the 2019-20 season. That campaign feels like a distant memory. The winger broke records at Barcelona, coming through at the age of just 16, essentially the precursor to the equally precocious Lamine Yamal and the touted heir to Lionel Messi’s throne.

However, that is not how it would transpire, with injuries and fitness issues halting his progress. At just 22, he has already missed 686 days of football due to injury; the equivalent of almost two years.

A loan spell at Brighton and Hove Albion failed to get his career back on track. Returning to Barcelona last season, he would make just 11 appearances in all competitions, accumulating less than 300 minutes of football.

Monaco ‘protecting’ Fati longer than they would other players

And so over the summer, he landed in Monaco, alongside Barcelona, one of the masters of youth development. However, their speciality is more in forging careers than getting them back on track. However, they had a plan to have Fati reach his former heights.

The key, it was deemed, was patience. “In the last three years, he has always been injured at the start of the season, so we want to get him in top shape. We are protecting him longer than we would other players,” said Hutter earlier this season.

It meant that Fati joined fellow summer signing Paul Pogba, who has now not played in over two years, in following a specific programme, designed to get them back to full fitness. Naturally, Fati’s programme was shorter than La Pioche’s, however, it has still been a long road back over the summer.

“He was close to the team, but we protected him so that he could be stable,” said Hutter after finally unleashing Fati last week, nearly three months after his arrival at the Principality club. After netting a late consolation for Monaco in their 4-1 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge on Thursday, Hutter revealed that he considered starting the Spaniard against FC Metz on Sunday.

Ultimately, he would start on the bench, however, he would quickly make his impact felt. Brought off the bench at half-time with the scores tied at 1-1, he needed just 37 seconds to get on the scoresheet in his first Ligue 1 appearance, sliding home Lamine Camara’s ball into the box.

He was on hand once again 35 minutes later. With the game deadlocked once again at 2-2, Fati headed home a pinpoint Krépin Diatta cross, paving the way for Monaco to win 5-2 against Les Grenats.

Fati, who took a seat on the Monaco bench whilst his teammates celebrated with the home fans at the Stade Louis II, looking into the middle space, visibly emotional and contemplative. “Of course you’re emotional when you score and help your team, it is a joyful moment,” he told Get French Football News. But joy won’t have been the only emotion for the Barcelona loanee.

‘You have to live in the moment, and the past doesn’t matter’ – Fati

“You can imagine that, when another clubs signs you, expectations are high. Ansu is a big name. For him the past few weeks have been hard, and then to bounce back, for sure you are emotional. But everyone was happy when I told them they would have two days off,” joked the Monaco manager.

It is a rebirth of sorts for Fati, after years of struggles, not that he sees it that way. “The start of a new career? I don’t see it like that. In the end, every game is an opportunity to show the football that I can bring. You have to live in the moment, and the past doesn’t matter,” said Fati in the post-match mixed zone.

The Spaniard repeated with insistance how “happy” he was at Monaco. In his opening matches, that has shown. It is a statement return, but only time will tell if it is a flash in the pan, or whether Monaco have found the formula to rejuvenate one of football’s most exciting and precocious talents.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle – reporting from Monaco