Barcelona Reportedly Keeping Lionel Messi's Possible Successor Who Could Cost $433M

Barcelona has no plans of loaning their second-team player tipped to be Lionel Messi’s successor and in the process, could be worth close to $433 million.

The Catalan club houses an array of talented youngsters. In fact, the club is already developing their future Messis. One of their most recent signings Francisco Trincao, has been earning comparisons with Messi and even Cristiano Ronaldo. But prior to Trincao, it was Ansu Fati who has been tipped to be the next Barcelona superstar.

Sources told AS (via Besoccer.com), Fati will stay with Barcelona and could still alternate between the first and second teams. Reports claim that Barca is not considering loaning the player for the time being as they want him to follow in the footsteps of Camp Nou legends like Carles Puyol, Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Messi.

Despite the eventful season of Barcelona this year, Fati has remained one of the contributors in the club. The young forward of La Masia arrived by surprise at the first team and he's managed to impress everyone including Messi himself.

What makes Fati even more interesting is the possibility that he could become one of the most expensive players in the future. While still a second team player under contract, taking Fati out of Barcelona at the moment would cost about 170 million euros ($184,000,000) . The said amount is his price tag before he even completes his final installation in the first team. Once he becomes a part of the first team, Fati’s worth is expected to balloon up to 400 million euros ($433,000,000) . Pundits speculate that when that happens, nobody could take him out of Barcelona.

Messi once vowed to help Fati reach his full potential in the same manner as he did. However, despite being eager to put the youngster under his wing, Messi was not included in Fati’s list of greatest players of all time. When the 17-year-old revealed his top four best players in history. one name seems to be missing – Messi’s.

Unlike typical Barcelona-bred players, Fati seemed to be shockingly not overwhelmed by the six-time Ballon d’Or winner’s greatness. According to Fati, his all-time favorites are Barcelona legends Victor Valdes, Puyol, and the magnificent Xavi. However, as far as being the best forward of all time goes, Fati puts Didier Drogba over Messi.

"I'll stick with him because of his power and the way he scored goals," Fati said of Drogba.