Barcelona have confirmed that they have received multiple offers for Manchester United target Frenkie de Jong.
New United boss Erik ten Hag is understood to be keen on his fellow countryman. The pair were together at Ajax and won the Eredivisie title and KNVB Cup together. And it was his spell under Ten Hag at the Eredivisie club that earned him the mega move to Camp Nou in 2019.
Now Ten Hag is keen on a reunion with Sport recently claiming a href=”https://www.teamtalk.com/manchester-united”>Manchester United had made contact with Barcelona regarding a summer move.
PSG are also understood to be in contention for the midfielder, who is valued at around £65m. Sport, Le Parisien and Footmercato have all claimed the Ligue 1 champions are serious rivals to United.
And now speaking to L’Esportiu, Barca president Joan Laporta confirmed De Jong has several offers: “Frenkie has great quality; he knows our system and, yes, he is a coveted player in the market and we have received proposals, but we think he should continue at Barca.
“Now the market is starting to move and we have players who have offers. They have offers because they are high-quality players and we have to somehow let everything flow a bit and be very attentive to what fair play we have to make depending on what decisions. Right now, everything is open.”
Barca boss Xavi has always maintained he would like to keep the 25-year-old playmaker. And ESPN have reported that De Jong would prefer to stay at the Camp Nou.
De Jong sale down to Barcelona
Xavi has said previously that the midfielder’s “quality” makes him “the present and the future” at the club.
But financial factors could come into play in Catalonia, with the LaLiga giants heavily in debt.
“For me [De Jong] is a very important player,” Xavi told a news conference earlier this month. “He’s almost always been a starter, except when I’ve rotated [the team]. He is a fundamental player, but then there is the financial situation of the club.
“Not just with Frenkie, I mean in general. He’s a player I like a lot, but we’ll see how the situation is.”
Barcelona’s debts had risen to €1.35bn in August 2021 and Laporta revealed that salaries were running at 103% of the club’s income.
The club had losses of £412m for the last year, leaving them with a negative net worth of £386m. And something may have to give in the summer with Barca’s squad being trimmed.
