Thursday, July 7, 2022 at 10:33• Guy Habets • Last update: 10:40

The special contract situation of Frenkie de Jong at Barcelona contributes to the difficult negotiations with Manchester United. That writes The Telegraph, which reveals how precarious the current financial status of the Catalan club is. They would still owe De Jong nineteen million euros in salary.

The stories about De Jong, Barcelona and a transfer to Man United from trainer Erik ten Hag have been around for weeks. The Telegraph now know why the negotiations have been going on for so long: the playmaker from Arkel still receives a huge amount in salary from the Catalans. At the beginning of the corona crisis, players from Barcelona were asked to make a salary sacrifice and De Jong agreed, on the condition that he would still receive the lost amount in the future.

According to the English quality newspaper, the outstanding amount is about nineteen million euros and the fact that the former Ajax player has yet to receive such a large amount is delaying negotiations with Man United. The debt with De Jong would first have to be settled before agreement could be reached on a switch. However, it remains to be seen whether Barcelona will manage to pay the the Dutch international nineteen million.

Earlier, club president Joan Laporta dealt with the transfer rumors at a press conference. “He is currently a Barcelona player and if we don’t need it, we will not sell him,” several media reported on Wednesday from the mouth of the chairman. “We don’t want to sell him either. We are aware that he has offers from other clubs, but at the moment we will not sell him.”

United meanwhile wants to do everything they can to bring in De Jong, since two midfielders have left with Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic and Ten Hag is sure that his former pupil at Ajax is the ideal reinforcement for the Mancunians– diaphragm. In the meantime, the new trainer at Old Trafford has already brought in a Dutchman with Tyrell Malacia, and two more Eredivisie players are named as acquisitions with Antony and Lisandro Martínez.


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