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Comparing Ansu Fati’s breakthrough year at Barcelona to Lionel Messi’s

After starring for Barcelona‘s first team, Ansu Fati has been drawing comparisons with team-mate Lionel Messi, but how do the two compare?

Since making his senior debut against Espanyol in October 2004, Messi has developed into one of the greatest players of all time, scoring 635 goals in 732 appearances for the club at the time of writing.

While several promising youngsters have been compared to the legendary Argentine forward over the years, they often fail to live up to the billing.

Fati, however, has already broken several records during his breakthrough year at Barcelona and genuinely appears to have a bright future at the Nou Camp.

We’ve compared the 17-year-old’s current La Liga record to Messi’s stats in his first 25 league appearances to see how they compare.

Note: Fati made his first 25 La Liga appearances in the space of 13 months while it took Messi just under two years to reach that figure.

Ansu Fati 

Games: 25
Starts: 12
Sub appearances: 13
Minutes played: 1,097

Goals: 9
Assists: 1

Minutes per goal: 121.8
Minutes per goal or assist: 109.7

READ: 11 records that Ansu Fati has broken in his incredible debut season at Barca

Lionel Messi

Games: 25
Starts: 12
Sub appearances: 13
Minutes played: 1,077

Goals: 8
Assists: 3

Minutes per goal: 134.6
Minutes per goal or assist: 97.9

As the stats show, Messi and Fati had an eerily similar record when breaking into the Barcelona first team.

Despite their undoubted ability, the pair were both gradually eased into the senior squad, starting on the bench for 13 of their first 25 league games.

While Fati averaged a goal on a slightly more regular basis, Messi was able to provide more assists for his team-mates, a trait that he still possesses. 


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