The 23-year-old forward spent the campaign on loan at AS Monaco from Barcelona, contributing 12 goals in 30 appearances across all competitions — numbers that his father believes compare favourably with any Spanish striker in any league this season.
"He finished the French league with Monaco at a higher level than any other Spanish striker," Bori Fati told EremNews. "But if the national team did not see it that way, there is nothing that can be done."
The reaction was conspicuously restrained. Bori Fati did not question De la Fuente's competence or suggest his son had been treated unfairly. Instead he pointed to a structural problem — the absence of sustained international continuity — as the real reason the door to the World Cup remained closed.
"If Ansu had played regularly for a long time, he would surely have returned to the national team," he said. "That is obvious. But he was coming from a complicated period in which he was not playing."
Ansu Fati has not been called into a Spain squad since October 2023, a gap caused initially by injury problems and then by his diminished role at Barcelona under Hansi Flick. His decision to seek a loan move last summer was driven by the need for consistent minutes — and at Monaco it delivered exactly that.
The Barcelona forward renewed his contract with the Catalan club until June 2028 before the loan was agreed. Monaco hold an €11 million purchase option, a clause that was expected to be triggered if the Ligue 1 club secured European football. Monaco qualified for the Europa Conference League — whether that activates the clause or makes it financially unattractive remains unclear, with the player's father indicating the family want him to stay in the principality.
"We would like Ansu to stay at Monaco because he is happy there," Bori Fati said. "But he has a contract with Barcelona until 2028. We will see what happens."
The wider picture for Ansu Fati at Barcelona has been one of gradual, painful separation from the club that raised him. He inherited Lionel Messi's number 10 shirt at 18 — a moment of extraordinary expectation — and spent the years that followed battling injuries that interrupted every time his form began to build momentum.
In France, for the first time in several seasons, nothing interrupted. He played 30 times. He scored 12 goals. He felt like himself.
Whether that is enough to earn a recall for the Nations League in autumn — or the 2030 World Cup cycle — depends on whether he can sustain it. The World Cup of 2026 will not feature him. But the career is not over.