Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong has admitted he would be willing to do so leave in certain circumstances the “club of his dreams”.
The divisive Dutchman has been greeted with boos and whistles from an increasingly angry Catalan fanbase in his recent outings. After arriving from Ajax for €75m (£62m) as one of the world’s best midfielders, De Jong has struggled to reproduce his unique style of play for a new team in a new country.
The 27-year-old has played under six different managers over five and a half seasons, with the demands on him changing with each appointment. Hansi Flick, Barcelona’s current incumbent, was only able to use De Jong intermittently due to fears he would aggravate a serious ankle injury, which led the player to consider an early retirement.
As the January transfer window opens, there has been increasing speculation about De Jong’s future. While his agent and Flick commented on the matter, the player himself expressed his own views.
“People think that I want to stay at Barcelona forever because life outside of football is very good here, and it is good, but it is still less important than what happens on the pitch,” De Jong said compared to the Dutch publication Football International. “If I felt like I wasn’t contributing enough or if the team couldn’t keep up, I would leave.”
De Jong has come under criticism primarily because his excellent contract does not reflect the impact he has been able to make in recent years. Academy midfielder Marc Bernal, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in August, has played more La Liga minutes than his Dutch teammate this season.
Barcelona are reportedly in a contractual stalemate with De Jong, who has so far refused to sign a new contract with lower wages. The club is so keen to get the midfielder’s salary – estimated to be around £300,000 a week – off its books that it would accept a lower transfer fee.
De Jong, who has a contract with Barcelona until 2026, is completely unimpressed. “My contract extension is an issue for the newspapers here, but not for me,” he shrugged. “I want to play football and then I will see what the club wants to do with me and then I will decide together with my agent and my family what I want to do.”
One issue that has irked De Jong is the size of his trophy cabinet. The Dutch champions with Ajax joined a Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona side that had won four of the last five La Liga titles, four domestic cups and the 2015 Champions League. With the financial crash triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic hitting Barcelona harder than any other club, major honors have not been as promising in recent years.
“I have to admit, when I signed for Barcelona I couldn’t have imagined that after four years I would only win a La Liga, a Copa del Rey and a Spanish Super Cup,” De Jong huffed. “I expected at least double that, so I’m disappointed. Things happen away from home and you can’t predict them.”