Frenkie de Jong gets out of the loop of unknowns

Next Wednesday, December 28, a documentary series about FC Barcelona will be released on the Amazon platform under the title Una nova era.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
24 December 2022 Saturday 01:32
41 Reads
Frenkie de Jong gets out of the loop of unknowns

Next Wednesday, December 28, a documentary series about FC Barcelona will be released on the Amazon platform under the title Una nova era. With such a name, they want to reflect the new impulse that has been given to the team after the cycle that ended in 2020 with the departure of Bartomeu.

The first player, in fact the first person, to appear in the first chapter is Frenkie de Jong, although his purchase does not belong to Laporta's second stage but to the Bartomeu era. The first play that is shown is the goal that he scored in Naples in the Europa League. A great goal with a thread from outside the area after driving the ball.

The Dutchman was the first piece with which they wanted to put together the puzzle of a team that was becoming a veteran. And that token, after going around many times, does not move. De Jong, 25, has always been clear that his will was to play and succeed at the Camp Nou, where he arrived in the summer of 2019. However, for six months the runrún began to accompany his figure.

The irruption last season of two young homegrown players like Gavi and Nico in midfield and the fact that the Oranje was surely the footballer in the squad with the most international market made the board of directors think that his departure could be an economic solution. Another lever to sell. The target price was more than 80 million. “Nobody has told me anything and we haven't talked about it. I don't think it will happen but if it does happen I would be disappointed”, explains Frenkie de Jong himself sincerely in the docuseries.

The player, who had followed Barcelona from his country since he was a child and whose father is a big fan of Johan Cruyff, was no stranger to the fact that they were moving his chair, although out of doors the official version was that he was non-transferable, especially because Xavi I counted on him a lot. To the point that he has played in 51 of the 57 games that the Egarense coach has on the Blaugrana bench.

Now for the first time the opinions of the player, the coach and the president Joan Laporta agree. They are aligned. And De Jong has been able to get out of the loop he had entered. "I have never wanted to sell Frenkie de Jong because he is one of the mainstays we have, he is one of the great talents, young and called to be, as he already is, one of the team leaders," the president explained in his speech on Thursday. interview on Barça TV, to close ranks around the midfielder.

The waters have returned to their course and the footballer is calmer and more confident. In fact, right now the club is not considering sitting down with the Dutchman to ask him for a salary reduction, one of the highest in the squad after the last renewal signed by Bartomeu. In its day, the entity's legal advisors even studied the agreement in case it constituted a crime. A way to exert pressure. But that too is past.

De Jong is linked to Barcelona until June 2026, so he has three and a half years left on his contract. His adaptation is complete and he has completely remodeled his home, in Pedralbes. A rooting that will be even greater this summer when he plans to marry his partner. On the sporting level, self-demanding and ambitious as he is, he is aware that this season we have to win the League now because in his record as a Barcelona fan there is hardly a Cup.

For his part, Xavi continues working to exploit all the virtues of the modern and elegant midfielder that is Frenkie. Soon, perhaps next season, perhaps in January 2024, Busquets will have to be replaced, who has already said goodbye to the Spanish team. In the coaching staff they do not see the Dutchman as a pure replacement for the Barça captain. De Jong has a more mobile profile and a free spirit and fits perfectly in matches where the opponent is not too offensive and the duel is one-way. Against Villarreal in October and Elche in September, both at home, he put together great performances. In the League there will always be a few matches like this, but that profile could be out of tune in big games, with more back and forth, they analyze.

Starting in Qatar in all five of the Netherlands' games, he shone in the equalizer against Argentina and only Messi and goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez's saves in the penalty shootout (2-2 after extra time) prevented him from reaching the semifinals in his first World Cup. . Now, without distractions, he must complete his best year at Barcelona.