Barcelona is keen to keep former Ajax midfielder Frankie De Jong despite Manchester United interest.
La Liga club Barcelona is adamant and keen to keep Manchester United target Frankie De Jong at the club this summer.
The former Ajax player is on the wish list of his former manager Erik Ten Hag who is the new gaffer at Manchester United.
According to former reports it was stated that an agreement has been reached between the clubs to bring the Dutch to the Premier League side.
United agreed a 65m euro (£56m) fee, plus add-ons, with Barca for the Netherlands international and that deal remains active.
But Barcelona president Joan Laporta said: “[De Jong] is a Barca player and unless we have a need or interest in selling him, we don’t want to sell him.”
It is understood that the plan to bring the Dutch man to Old Trafford has been slow down.
A move to Manchester United would reunite De Jong with his former Ajax boss Erik ten Hag, who is taking charge in his first season at Old Trafford.
Laporta added: “We know he [De Jong] has offers. If at some moment we were interested, we would consider it, but right now, we’re not selling the player.”
A piece in the Spanish newspaper Marca might explain why the transfer for De Jong is taking so long.
It says the Dutchman agreed to a major restructuring of his Barcelona contract within an overall extension that was designed to help the La Liga giants through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Essentially, Marca says De Jong had his salary reduced to 3m euros in 2020-21 and 6m euros (£2.6m) last season. Starting from next season, he is due to earn 18m euros for the next three years – and 19m euros in the final year of his deal.
Evidently, if he was to leave for United now, De Jong would want some kind of compensation for the money he should have earned by now but hasn’t.
