In addition to an XXL salary, Barça made another promise to Frenkie de Jong in 2019 to lure him away from PSG, to whom he had nevertheless given his agreement.
Having just returned from a malleolus injury which has caused him to miss numerous matches since last April, Frenkie de Jong is starting his sixth season at FC Barcelona, having been very close to signing for PSG in January 2019 with a view to next summer. Then aged 21, the Dutch midfielder had just completed a remarkable first part of the season with Ajax Amsterdam, who reached the last four of the Champions League that season before being eliminated by Tottenham by Lucas Moura, author of a hat-trick in the semi-final second leg.
But it was during the January 2019 transfer window that the future of the elegant Dutch defensive midfielder was decided. All the biggest European clubs were snapping it up for the following summer and Ajax was greedy by demanding nearly 75 million euros. PSG was on the case and the Antero Henrique/Maxwell duo thought they had won the day after traveling to Amsterdam in mid-January to meet the player’s agent and the sporting director of Ajax at the time, Marc Overmars. .
Abidal confirms De Jong had deal with PSG in 2019
The player had also spoken with Thomas Tuchel before being finally diverted from PSG by Josep Maria Bartomeu’s Barça, who completed a transfer with Ajax for 75 million euros plus 11 bonuses, in addition to offering the player an XXL salary which still haunts the nights of new president Joan Laporta today. Sports director of Barça at the time, former French international Eric Abidal returned to this transfer of Frenkie de Jong in an interview with Free Foot.
“The recruitment I am most proud of is Frenkie De Jong, he confided. I know that at the time, he had an agreement with quite a few clubs, notably PSG. And I knew during the Real Madrid-Ajax match (played two months after the officialization of his future transfer to Barça, editor’s note) where he was huge that we really had to have him in our team. In this job, I think the important thing is information, and his dream was to play for Barça. »
However, the Dutch press revealed at the time that De Jong’s first intention was to join Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, then PSG, to whom he had said yes before Overmars upped the ante and negotiated with Barça behind the back of Antero Henrique, who had also been accused of having been too sure of himself in this matter. Legend even has it that the player’s companion had visited several apartments in Paris. According to Eric Abidal, the promise of an indisputable starting place at Barça also worked in favor of the Catalan club in this matter.
Barça had promised an indisputable starting place to De Jong
“He told me: ‘I didn’t speak with the Barça coach (Ernesto Valverde, editor’s note), that’s certainly why I made the decision to go to PSG because I had spoke with Tuchel.” And I simply told him: “Barça is the institution that signs you, it’s not the coach”. And the second thing is: “at the price of the transfer amount, know that you will be an indisputable holder!” Players always have this doubt. It wasn’t easy, but we managed to achieve our goals. »
