Ansu Fati will wear the No. 10 shirt at Barcelona after it was vacated by Lionel Messi, who moved to Paris Saint-Germain earlier in the summer, the club confirmed Wednesday.
According to reports, the Spanish giants had considered retiring the jersey for this season, but La Liga rules that first-team players must wear numbers 1-25 made that difficult.
Ansu, who returned to training recently after nine months out with knee injury, had originally been given the No. 17 shirt for the upcoming season.
Ansu, 18, has not played for Barcelona since injuring a knee against Real Betis last November.
The Spainish international burst onto the scene in 2019, becoming the club’s youngest debutant in 78 years when he featured in a 5-2 win against Betis, aged 16 years and 298 days.
In total, he has made 41 appearances for the first team, scoring 13 goals.
Ansu will now form part of a new-look attack at Barcelona after Antoine Griezmann followed Messi out of the door on Tuesday.
