Humphry Nijman, Georginio Wijnaldum’s agent, has spoken out about his client’s eventful weeks in the transfer area. The midfielder appeared to be leaving Liverpool on a free transfer for Barcelona, but was convinced at the last minute by Paris Saint-Germain. Last Thursday, PSG officially confirmed Wijnaldum’s arrival: the the Dutch international signed for three years and is said to earn 9.5 million euros on an annual basis.
Wijnaldum, 30, said in an open letter to Liverpool supporters that he “would have liked to have been a Liverpool player for years to come”, but that “unfortunately things turned out differently”. He seemed to be suggesting that things had happened internally. “I still have to think about how I’m going to tell my story. The fans deserve to hear the true story behind this,” Wijnaldum said. Nijman emphasizes in the Here We Go Podcast However, journalist Fabrizio Romano said his client had a ‘fantastic period’ at Liverpool. “Five years ago we visited Jürgen Klopp’s home. The plan was then presented to win prizes, including the national championship and the Champions League. We succeeded. That was fantastic for the fans, the coach and the player.”
“He (Wijnaldum, ed.) was very happy that those goals were achieved. His contract expired this summer,” continues the agent, who indicates that Internazionale was the first club to seriously report in January. Piero Ausilio made an offer, but owner Steven Zhang had some problems getting the money from China. Inter were the first club to try to sign him, but in the end couldn’t meet the conditions. After that the directors of Juventus and PSG showed an interest.As for Barcelona, we knew that the coach, Mr. Ronald Koeman, wanted to bring Gini to Barcelona.They worked together very successfully with the Dutch national team, so those were the options the player had. At a later stage, Bayern Munich also showed interest.”
The Wijnaldum camp had some good conversations with Barcelona. “It all looked good at first. We tried to come to an agreement, but in the meantime PSG kept telling us that their interest was very serious. When both offers were on the table, we had to make a choice. They are both fantastic options “Barcelona is a wonderful challenge for any player and the same goes for PSG. The player’s choice ultimately fell on PSG and we were able to negotiate a deal.” Journalist Romano reported at an earlier stage that Lionel Messi was interested in Wijnaldum’s arrival. Wijnaldum and Nijman noticed this too. “It was a very big compliment that Messi was so outspoken about it. He was keen that Barcelona would bring in Gini. Gini saw that as a very, very big compliment,” said the agent.
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