Spurs linked to one time heir to Lionel Messi | OneFootball

By this point, we all know of young Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal. As Englishmen, we know him all too well from the Euros. However, before Yamal, there was another player that was seen as the prince of Barcelona, and future star of the club. Ansu Fati - who has been linked with a move to Spurs this window, per SPORT.

Tottenham Hotspur looking at previous target from Barcelona

Back in the 19/20 season, a 16-year old old Fati broke through into the Barcelona first team. In August 2019, he became the club's youngest ever goal scorer. The following month, during his first ever senior start, he became the youngest player in the history of La Liga to score and assist in the same game. The craziest part is, he had wrapped that up by the seventh minute of the game.

In December of that year, he scored during a win over Inter Milan in the Champions League, making him the youngest ever goal scorer in the competition. There are so many more records he broke that season, but you get the idea by now. He was an absolute sensation.

In just 1044 La Liga minutes that season, a 16 and 17 year old Fati scored seven goals. That season was interrupted quite a bit by injuries. Unfortunately, that would not be the anomaly of his career - rather a consistent and infuriating theme.

During the 20/21 season, he suffered a knee injury against Real Betis in November, which proved to be his last appearance of the season as a result. He has never really been the same player since. He has had moments, and clawed his career back enough to be included in Spain's 2022 World Cup squad, but he has largely been unable to capture his form when he burst onto the scene.

For the 23/24 season, Fati was loaned to Premier League side Brighton and Hove Albion. However due to injuries, form, the performances of other players, and everthing else - he only started three games, totalling 524 minutes - though did score two goals in that time.

He has seen game time even harder to come by this season, with just 129 minutes played in La Liga, and 43 in the Champions League - despite being fit. It is clear that the next step for his career is to start a new challenge.

The constant and big injuries have appeared to have taken a toll physically. Whilst no slouch, in fact he is still pretty quick - he does not have that burst that he had when he broke through, unable to truly hurt defences with blistering pace anymore. Still a pretty good dribbler and finisher, he has definitely been handicapped by a loss of a couple of yards of pace.