Frenkie de Jong admits to being kicked out of Barcelona

DBasia.news – Frenkie de Jong has opened up regarding the transfer saga last summer. Now he admits that he was alsmost kicked out of Barcelona.

De Jong is Manchester United’s main target ahead of the 2022-2023 season. His presence is eagerly awaited by the new manager of the Red Devils, Erik ten Hag.

Ten Hag and De Jong have a good relationship as they had worked together at Ajax Amsterdam. This made many believe that the player will be close to Old Trafford.

On the other hand, Barcelona are fickle about De Jong transfer’s saga. The Blaugrana are said to be ready to sell him at a high price, but recently there have been statements stating that the 25-year-old player is not on the selling list.

De Jong’s transfer saga has been complicated by news regarding Barcelona’s salary arrears. This problem has hampered negotiations with other clubs.

In the end, De Jong stayed at Barcelona until the transfer window ended. Meanwhile, Manchester United brought Casemiro to strengthen their midfield.

De Jong firmly admitted that he had no interest in leaving Barcelona last summer. But he acknowledged there was encouragement including from the club president to ask him to leave.

“In May, I decided to stay at Barcelona. Since then, my opinion has never changed,” De Jong told Ziggo Sport.

“But after that, you already know that the pressure started coming both from the newspapers, the president (clubs) and actually from all parties.”

Barcelona wanted to sell De Jong for a reason. At that time, El Barca needed to release a number of key players in order to register their new recruits to LaLiga.

De Jong became one of the stars who wanted to be sacrificed. Besides being high priced, his departure could also make Barcelona reduce their salary burden.

Despite the pressure to leave, De Jong remained calm. His determination to stay at Barcelona did not waver.

“I wanted to stay, so the pressure never made me nervous. I knew I would have fewer minutes to play at the start of the season,” he added.

“But I want to be a starter again. I hope it will be like that against Real Madrid.”

De Jong’s playing opportunities did decrease drastically at the start of this season. It seems that this is one of the threats given by Barcelona’s management if they choose to stay.

De Jong has appeared ten times throughout the 2022-2023 season. But he was revealed as a starter four times.