This Thursday, Frenkie de Jong has a unique opportunity to enter the history books of FC Barcelona. The Dutchman could reach 200 games with the Blaugrana shirt if he plays against Unionistas de Salamanca at the Reina Sofía Municipal Stadium, during the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey.
Perhaps it may sound paradoxical to some, since the culé club considered selling the midfielder not so long ago. It was in the summer of 2022, when Barça's salary scale was through the roof and Ten Hag's Manchester United knocked on De Jong's door. In the end, the footballer did not go to England and is currently facing his fifth season as a Barcelona player.
Frenkie has been a starter for all the coaches who have led Barça since he signed for the Blaugrana team in July 2019. Since then, he has been under the orders of five different ones: Ernesto Valverde, Quique Setién, Ronald Koeman, Sergi Barjuán (coach interim) and Xavi Hernández.
De Jong's best numbers at Barça belong to the 2020-21 season with Koeman at the head of the culé team: he played 51 games (4,492 minutes), scored seven goals and gave eight assists. That season, the Blaugranas became champions of the Copa del Rey, after beating Athletic Club in the final (0-4).
Just two years later, - this time under the orders of Xavi - the former Ajax footballer would win the League and the Spanish Super Cup, winning the three trophies he has to date as a Blaugrana player. Also, being a key player in these achievements for the Terrassa coach in the system of the four midfielders, despite the fact that the player only made three starts in the first eight days of the 2022-23 League.
De Jong, who has a contract with Barça until 2026, has scored 16 goals and nine assists with Barça to date. The last goal that he added to his personal account was last August, in the Blaugranas' victory against Villarreal at La Cerámica, during matchday 3 of the domestic championship (3-4).
Thus, Frenkie de Jong's matches with the Catalans in these five seasons are broken down as follows, according to the competition: 142 in the League, 28 in the Champions League, 13 in the Copa del Rey, eight in the Spanish Super Cup and another eight in the Europa League. The balance of these 199 matches results in 122 wins, 35 draws and 42 losses in total.
If Barça's '21' takes the field this Thursday against Unionistas de Salamanca, he will only be ahead of Ter Stegen (395) and Sergi Roberto (361) in number of games played, if we only take into account the current Blaugrana squad.
Likewise, if he reaches 200, De Jong would further consolidate his position within the top-5 of Dutch players with the most games played wearing the Blaugrana jersey.
Phillip Cocu heads this particular list with 292 games, followed by Ronald Koeman (264), Patrick Kluivert (257) and Michael Reiziger (255). Other names to highlight in this classification are Johan Cruyff (180), Giovanni van Bronckhorst (154) or Johan Neeskens
