Things are going badly for Barcelona forward Ansu Fati. The 22-year-old's career prospects have been dwindling for something like four straight years, as a succession of leg injuries (and accompanying extended absences) have thrown him miles off the developmental track that once made him one of the world's brightest wonderteens. After returning from an unfruitful loan to Brighton for the 2023–24 season, he now finds himself an afterthought at Barça. Lately he cannot even break into match-day squads. The holder of several records as the youngest-ever goalscorer in this or that competition has not scored or assisted in any competition in more than a year.
If he is to have any realistic chance of rebuilding his career, Fati very clearly needs to leave Barcelona, either on a permanent transfer or an extended loan to a smaller club where he can get lots and lots of playing time. Unfortunately, his gargantuan salary, negotiated several leg-kablooeys ago, makes this a very difficult circle to square. The kind of club that could afford to take on his wage generally would not pay that much for, or dedicate guaranteed buckets of playing time to, such a dubious reclamation project; the kind of club that could guarantee him buckets of playing time would have to mangle its squad salary structure to pay him. Meanwhile you can imagine why a 22-year-old who has had more knee surgeries than completed 90-minute match appearances in the past half decade might balk at the idea of an 80-percent pay cut for the sake of leaving a club he joined as a 10-year-old. It's a tough situation! But that's not really what this blog is about.
Barcelona's manager, Hansi Flick, is a German. He does not speak Catalan or Spanish well enough to conduct press conferences in either language. For this reason, when he holds his normal press availability before Barça matches, the questions are either asked in or translated into English, and he answers them in English—which is also not his first language. Then the Spanish press outlets—Mundo Deportivo, Sport, Diario AS, Marca, etc.—largely staffed, one assumes, by native Spanish speakers, translate his responses from English to, well, Spanish. Then I, an English speaker who cannot read Spanish fluently, visit the websites of those press outlets, and the automated language translators in my web browsers translate their contents into English.
Here is how that played out on Tuesday, after Flick answered a press-conference question about Ansu Fati ahead of Wednesday's Copa del Rey match against Real Betis. Mundo Deportivo—typically the first stop on my morning circuit of the Spanish papers—quoted Flick thusly, once Google Translate had rendered MD's reporting into English:
"I'm honest with everyone, I've spoken to him. It will be what he wants. He's ready to be a professional and show great performance, I said that when I arrived [....] He got injured, but after the injury he didn't show us his 100 percent. And it's a shame for him and for us. He didn't give his all. He has to work like everyone else and give his best. That's what we want."
Damn!, I thought, reading this, which seemed incredibly harsh. Flick must really want Ansu gone, to be calling out his effort like that. He didn't show them his 100 percent! He didn't give his all! These are incredibly damning things to say about a young player on your own team who is going through the low point of his career.
Next I navigated over to Sport. Sport generally—to me, reading it in all cases on the far side of Google Translate's efforts—comes off a little more sensationalist than Mundo Deportivo, which is why I don't go there first. Here is how Sport quoted Flick (according to Google):
"I have to be honest with the players and I have spoken to Ansu about the situation as I have done with all the players. Everything will depend on him and what he can show us in the future [....] Ansu came back very well in the summer. He had done a very professional job, but then his first injury came and he had to stop. He has not been able to show all the football he has and all his quality so far, but he must continue working. He is a Barça player and is in our squad so we will continue working."
Huh! That does not seem nearly as harsh. Sport's version of Flick feels that Fati has not been able to give his all. That's very different, and much more merciful sounding.
My next stop was Diario AS. Unlike MD and Sport, which are based in Barcelona, AS is a Madrid publication, and tends (or seems to tend) to frame Barcelona news in less friendly ways, befitting its Madrid-centric stance. Here is how AS quoted the same portion of Flick's press conference, once again at the output end of Google Translate's work:
When I arrived at Barça I said that Ansu was doing very well and that he was working very hard, but the problems after his first injury... have meant that he has never been able to show his 100 percent, it’s a shame. When we arrived we were convinced that he could return, but, for now, he will have to work, like everyone else, to return and offer his best version.
By this point I'd concluded that Mundo Deportivo was doing anti–Ansu Fati journalism bias. This, like Sport's version, is clement and kind: Flick is talking about how injuries have prevented Fati from being able to perform at his highest level. There is nothing in here about him not giving his all!
The last stop of my morning Spain newspaper circuit is Marca, another Madrid publication, and like AS generally hostile-seeming to Barcelona. Fittingly, Marca headlined its story "Flick's warning to Ansu Fati" (at least according to Google Translate!) and quoted the manager thusly:
"I'm honest with everyone, I've spoken to him. It's whatever he wants. I told him when I arrived that he was ready to be a professional and show a great performance. He got injured, but after the injury he didn't show us his 100 percent. And it's a shame for him and for us. He didn't give his all. He has to work like everyone else and give his best. That's what we want."
What the hell! This is almost the exact same mean-ass shit Mundo Deportivo had! Now we are back to Flick bagging on Fati's professionalism.
On Wednesday, Barcelona announced its squad for the Real Betis match; as expected, Ansu Fati was left off of the list. Recall that on Tuesday, Sport, under the byline of Luis Miguelsanz, had quoted Flick less harshly than Mundo Deportivo and Marca, with the coach saying that Fati hadn't been able to show his best self since his preseason injury. Today, Wednesday, under Jordi Carne's byline in a story about Fati's absence from the Copa del Rey squad list, Sport revisited the Tuesday presser quotes, and rendered them thusly:
"I'm honest with everyone, I've spoken to him. I told him when I arrived that he's ready to be a professional and show great performance. He got injured, but after the injury he didn't show us his 100 percent. And it's a shame for him and for us. He didn't give his all. He has to work like everyone else and give his best. That's what we want."
This is nearly word-for-word the same as how Marca, the evil Madridista outlet, quoted Flick. What the hell, Sport! Get it together!
Kind of embarrassingly, I'd done this whole circuit in growing bafflement by the time it occurred to me that I could just ... watch Flick's press conference for myself. After all, I speak and understand English, and he delivers his presser remarks in English! Why do I need those remarks translated into Spanish and back again?
QUESTIONER: I want to ask you for a player who hasn't been playing in the Supercopa, Ansu Fati, what are the plans for Hansi Flick with Ansu Fati? Have you spoken to him? Could there maybe be a loan for him?
FLICK: I'm really happy with the whole players and the team and the squad so, it's like it is in football, we are now at the moment, yeah, [Iñigo Martínez] is injured and Marc Bernal and Marc ter Stegen, um, I think, but, we have, then, Andreas Christensen who will be back maybe on, on Sunday, um, the next match, um, no, not Sunday, is on Saturday, sorry. Um, and you know this is, this is for me the important thing and, uh, I'll be honest with every player and I also talk with Ansu about his situation, so it is up to him what he shows. And I think, you know, when we arrived here, and this is also when I had one of the first press conference I said that Ansu is really doing good, uh, he came back really very professional, he worked hard and also he showed in the training a great performance. Uh, but, then he has, you know, about the problems with the first, after the first injury, um, yeah, and he never, he never showed us or can show, could show a hundred percent how good he is. And this is a little bit pity because for him and also for us because when we arrived we were really convinced about that, that he came back but at the moment, yeah it's, it, he has to work. He has to work that, like, we all do and to come back to bring the best. And this is our job also to help him.
Well, there you, uhhh ... have it? The thoughts of a German coach, answering in English a Spanish question translated into English, now unadulterated by Spanish reporters translating those thoughts into Spanish and then Google Translate translating them back into English, which is not the first language of any of the people involved in any part of the exchange.
What have we learned here today? Nothing at all, about anything.
