Ansu Fati 'wants Barcelona stay amid Manchester United, Tottenham interest'

The 20-year-old's development has been hampered by a number of serious injuries since he first burst onto the scene in Catalonia as a teenager.

Fati is still regarded as one of the Blaugrana's most highly-rated youngsters, but he has failed to become an undisputed starter under Xavi during the 2022-23 season.

Back in 2021, Barcelona tied Fati down to a new long-term contract until 2027 - with an option to extend until 2029 - with a staggering €1bn (£884m) release clause.

However, with Raphinha, Ousmane Dembele and Gavi often preferred in the wide areas during the current campaign, Fati's father has publicly hit out at Barcelona for his son's lack of game time.

Bori Fati revealed that he had pleaded with his son to leave the La Liga leaders, and there is said to be interest from the Premier League in the shape of Man United and Tottenham.

Xavi has backed Fati to fulfil his potential at Barcelona, though, and Mundo Deportivo claims that the attacker does want to continue in Catalan colours.

Despite Xavi's stance, Barcelona were thought to have been open to offers for Fati amid their desperate need to trim their wage bill, and agent Jorge Mendes had started to put the feelers out.

Bayern Munich were also ready to offer Fati an escape route, but Mendes has now been informed that the 2002-born winger does not want to depart Camp Nou anytime soon.

While his progress has been slowed, Fati is said to be taking inspiration from the careers of Xavi and Andres Iniesta, who did not achieve stardom in Catalonia until a later age.

Upon Lionel Messi's departure from Barcelona in 2021, Fati was blessed with the Argentine's iconic '10' jersey, and he has no plans to cede the famed shirt as he aims to consign his physical woes to history.

Fati boasts a total of 26 goals and nine assists from 99 outings for Barcelona in all tournaments, but he has also sat out 86 games due to a variety of physical problems.

The Spain international has recorded seven goals and three assists from 41 matches in the current campaign, but he made just his 11th La Liga start of the season in Monday's draw with Girona.

Fati completed 68 minutes of that goalless stalemate, which extended Barcelona's lead at the top of the La Liga table over reigning champions Real Madrid to 13 points.

Fati is in line to make his 100th senior appearance for La Blaugrana when they travel to face Getafe on Sunday afternoon.