Barcelona handed a debut to a player under the age of 17 for the first time since 1941 as Ansu Fati made an appearance against Real Betis last night.
Aged just 16 years and 300 days, Fati made his first senior appearance for Barca in their win at the Nou Camp for what fans will hope is the start of a very promising career.
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The Bissau-Guinean forward has been on the Catalan giants’ books since 2013 and looks one of the biggest prospects in the club’s academy.
It’s certainly an encouraging sign if Ernesto Valverde already felt ready to trust Fati in the first-team, with this stat below indicating just how big a deal it is for someone to play for the club so young…
While Barcelona undoubtedly have a proud record of promoting players from their academy, even the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique and others didn’t make their breakthrough at such a young age.
It remains to be seen how much more we’ll see of the 16-year-old this season, but he can be proud of this major achievement and surely use it as a springboard towards bigger things.