Barca boss shoots down claims over United bid for teen

BARCELONA president Josep Maria Bartomeu has rubbished reports United made an offer to sign Ansu Fati earlier this year.

Various reports claimed United had two mammoth offers rejected for the 17-year-old winger, who is regarded as one of the club’s brightest prospects.

Spanish outlet Sport published the initial report which claimed Jorge Mendes was trying to engineer a move to Old Trafford and it was reported that a bid worth £90m plus £50m in add-ons had been rejected by Barcelona.

However, Bartomeu insists there have been no formal approaches for the teenage sensation and reiterated his desire to rebuild he Catalan club around Fati in years to come.

“We haven’t had any formal offers but there has been interest from some clubs,” Bartomeu told Sport.

“Barca’s answer has always been ‘no’. Ansu isn’t for sale and is indispensable for the future of the club.

“He represents La Masia as someone who comes through the academy, learns and consolidates his place in the first team.

“He made the jump from theJuvenilside to the first team and there aren’t many players like him.

“Barca can’t sell Ansu, even if it might feel like an option to balance the books during a pandemic.

“We never considered letting him go. The opposite, in fact, what we want is to aid his development and extend his time here so that he plays at Barca for the rest of his life.

“He signed a contract as a Barca

Josep Maria Bartomeu

We haven’t had any formal offers, but there has been interest from some clubs Josep Maria Bartomeu

B player and now the plan is to promote him to the first team. That contract he signed in December had this in mind. He’ll join the first team because he’s won his place there. “AlongsideRiqui(Puig) and (Ronald) Araujo, it shows La Masia is capable of producing young players who can be good enough for the first team.

“These players prove that La Masia, even if people say it doesn’t work, continues to produce footballers.

“You can’t always do that with every generation but we now have three players who are here (in the first team) to stay.”