Two weeks ago, when coach Luis Enrique announced the call-up list to prepare for the matches against Germany and Ukraine in the UEFA Nations League, Ansu Fati named him and the rookie is only 17 years old.
In the 1-1q draw with Germany 3 days ago, Fati was brought on from the start of the second half, marking his official debut in the national team and becoming the second youngest player to play for La Roja at just 17 years and 308 days. The youngest record belongs to Angel Zubieta (17 years, 284 days) who has existed since 1936.
Early this morning (September 7), when Spain welcomed Ukraine, Fati even had a name in the official squad and made a strong impression. First, there was a situation of bringing home the 11m kick that Sergio Ramos successfully implemented to open the score in the 3rd minute. Then, in the 32nd minute, Fati himself scored to increase the score to 3-0 (previously Ramos scored the second goal in the 29th minute).
That goal helped the Guinea-Bissau born player set a record as the youngest player to score in the history of the Spanish national team. The old record belongs to Juan Errazquin (18 years, 11 months, 11 days) who has been around for the past 95 years.
Interestingly, on the day Fati made his mark, captain Ramos also had his own record as the defender with the most international goals (23 goals), surpassing Daniel Passarella of Argentina.
More impressively, Ramos has 23 goals in just 70 games, while the former Argentine defender needs 172 to score 22 goals. When Ramos began his journey with the Spanish national team, Fati was only 2 years old.
Returning to Fati, last year he also set a record at Barcelona when he became the second youngest player to play for the Catalan team (16 years, 298 days), in the 5-2 win over Real Betis. Not long after, Fati was also the youngest player in history to score for first team Barca (16 years, 304 days) in the 2-2 draw with Osasuna. Then, at the age of 16 years and 318 days, Fati continued to become the youngest player in the club's history to both score and assist in a match (inning 5-2 against Valencia).
Not stopping there, at 16 years and 321 days old, Fati is Barca's youngest player to make his Champions League debut. And when he was 17 and 40 days old, his goal against Inter Milan once again took Fati to the record for the youngest player to score in the Champions League.
In February 2020, Fati became the youngest player in La Liga history to score twice in a match (a 2-1 win over Levante).
I have never seen anything like that, the former Mayor of Herrera City in Andalucia shared, He is the smallest but plays with the biggest children. What he did was unbelievable.
He passes like Michael Laudrup, flip, drop, hook, score, dribble... I've watched football for 50 years but I've never seen anything like that.
Fati's family moved to Herrera when he was only 6 years old, after a period of living in Portugal when Mr. Bori Fati played for a number of low-level teams. Although Sevilla tried to recruit Fati, he ended up choosing Barca's La Masia Academy when he was 10.
Debuting and showing himself at Barca, Fati is considered by experts as the "Hero of Lionel Messi". And now, with his first steps in the national team, people also believe that Fati is what Spain needs.
A new star has appeared!
Fati's statistics in the match against Ukraine:
Number of minutes of play: 90
Number of touches: 61
Most successful dribbles (2)
Goal: 1
Most failed points (6)
Most touches in the penalty area (10)