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Barcelona and Manchester United are two of the biggest names in world football.
The European giants have won a combined 47 domestic league titles between them.
Due to their status, a number of top players have played for both clubs.
The likes of Mark Hughes, Gerard Pique, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Memphis Depay are just some names who have played for both United and Barca.
It’s a select group of players who told that distinction.
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But another name could have potentially joined that list.
If new reports are true, then Manchester United tried their very best to prize a young Barcelona starlet to swap Spain for England.
And it was an incredible bid that they’d put in for the player.
The Athletic are reporting that Manchester United had bid €100m for Ansu Fati in 2020.
For those thinking the name was familiar, Ansu Fati spent last season on loan at Brighton.
The Seagulls decided not to pursue any permanent deal for the young Spaniard.
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Before anyone jumps in, there is some method to the madness.
At that period of time, Fati was earmarked as the next big thing in Spanish football.
Making his debut in 2019, the young attacker broke a number of records in his early days at Camp Nou.
Ansu Fati became the youngest goalscorer in UEFA Champions League history when he scored against Inter Milan in the 2019/2020 group stage.
He was just 17 at that time.
Even by that age, he’d broken records.
When he was just 16, he became the youngest scorer in Barcelona history when he scored against Osasuna in LaLiga.
And he also broke the record for youngest scorer for the Spain national team when he scored against Ukraine aged 17.
To understand the hype around Ansu Fati at the time, he was being hailed as the next Lionel Messi.
That’s how big of a talent he was being touted as.
He was, in 2020, what Lamine Yamal is today.
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According to the Athetlic, The Manchester United manager at the time, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, rated the young Spanish international highly at the time and was keen to bring him to Old Trafford.
But Barcelona ultimately rejected the offer.
Since that point, Fati has had a falling from grace of sorts.
Injuries have taken their toil on the youngster and his career has been stuck because of it.
Even on loan at Brighton last year in the English Premier League, Fati was only able to show glimpses of what he is capable of.
So it looks like United managed to escape another potentially expensive mistake in the transfer market.
For Ansu Fati, there’s still time to make an impact in the game.
Despite going through so much already, the Barcelona attacker is still just 21 and has a lot of time ahead in his career.
If he can overcome his injury issues and get back to the form he showed in 2019/2020, then he can still make it to the top of the game.
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