Last Monday Ansu Fati returned almost two years later to the sports city of Las Rozas and did so surrounded by his teammates in a symbolic image of what the return of the Barça striker to the Spanish team means. He is the advantaged little brother that everyone must pamper and protect. He happens in Barcelona and now also with Spain. Fati arrived with a smile that has not been erased even after the first training sessions under the scorching Madrid sun. He is happy.
Much has happened since October 2020, the fourth and last time that the skillful forward from Bissau wore red. Since then, Luis Enrique has built a block, has defined the parameters of a team called for great deeds and has led Spain to the semifinals of the European Championship and the final of the last Nations League. The next challenge, capital par excellence, is the World Cup in Qatar in November and there, in the desert, the coach is aware that Fati can be the differential factor for his team to take the definitive step so as not to die on the shore.
They say from the locker room that Fati is not separated from Eric Garcia, Gavi and Ferran Torres, the three Barça players becoming his guardian angels in this unhurried return to the national team. But all the locker room takes care of him with care. “I see him very involved. He has been through very hard times and we try to support him as much as possible so that he feels as comfortable as possible”, Pablo Sarabia confirmed yesterday.
Aware that in the five games played with Barça since his last return, on May 1, he has not even been a starter, Luis Enrique has not the slightest intention of taking risks with his protégé, a condition that the Asturian does not hide. He has even banned her from giving interviews.
Ansu Fati is summoned to reacquire the mechanisms of the national team and to remember the particular dynamics with which the coach likes to work, thinking about a medium-term future. He has not come to be the star of this break. “We are not going to force him, we just want to see him train. It's a prize", recalled the coach of one of his favorite players, whom he made debut at the age of 18 and who he already tried to recover last year for the decisive matches against Greece and Sweden in November but again an injury got in the way. road.
With four official matches on the agenda these days (Portugal, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and again the Czech Republic), the idea is for Fati to participate in short bursts in some of them. Surely not in all of them. Qatar is on the horizon and Luis Enrique wants to take it easy. He is aware that he has another break at the end of November with two other official matches to continue integrating one of the crown jewels with the World Cup in mind.
