Frenkie de Jong has returned to the foreground with his future. The Blaugrana club admits that there will be offers for him and that the priority is not to sell him, but to do so the player should take a step forward to lower his salary in a long-term renewal.
The Dutchman is not willing to touch a contract that he signed deferring amounts that affect him, nor will he accept pressure to leave. For now, he neither wants to leave nor wants to renew, a position that he already defended in the summer of 2022 when he refused to go to Manchester United.
Both De Jong and his entourage are already a little tired of being in the spotlight for this issue when there is a major sporting crisis at Barça and the logical thing would be to focus on trying to save the season.
The Dutchman is not to blame for the contract they signed him and which served to defer amounts of salary that the club could not afford due to the reduction in income due to the pandemic. He pitched in by renewing until 2026 and has two years left on his contract.
Barça has been approaching De Jong to propose a long-term contract, but there has been no response from the player’s entourage and it is likely that there will not be one either. He wants to remain at the club as a priority and is not considering opening the door to an exit today. The Dutchman has always felt very comfortable in Barcelona and understands that the time has not yet come to talk about his long-term continuity.
It remains to be seen if Barça puts pressure on the player, although there is little they can do. The club’s idea has always been that De Jong had a more reasonable contract to lower the salary limit and, if unable to negotiate, open the door to a transfer.
There are very interested clubs in Europe for the Dutchman such as PSG, United and Chelsea, but the operation would be very financially high between salary and transfer and difficult to execute. De Jong should also give the OK, something that for now is not on the table.
Source: Sport