Barcelona beat Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain to the signing of Dutch wonderkid Frenkie de Jong last week by splashing out a cool €75m.
De Jong, 21, put pen to paper on a five-year deal but will stay at Ajax until July 1, 2019 – when he will complete his move to the Camp Nou.
Speaking after Sunday’s 2-0 win over Girona, Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde was asked about signing De Jong and what the youngster represents.
“An important addition,” he said, before adding: “A player with quality and a future that we think is a signing with a long perspective for Barcelona.
“We wish him the best [at Ajax]. His success will be the success of the club.”
Valverde was also questioned about City’s interest in De Jong and how Pep Guardiola contacted the Netherlands international when a move to Barcelona was basically finalised.
“You can’t call a player who already has a contract,” retorted Valverde. “It isn’t my code of conduct to call a player who is under contract with another club.
“If I do it, I won’t say it. If the player says it then it is his problem. I have nothing to say about it. Everybody has a different way of doing things. This club acts in a certain way.”
De Jong hasn’t been short of options this month and now Spanish outlet AS have detailed how Neymar helped to make the move happen for Barcelona without even realising it.
According to the English version of the report, Neymar has previously sent text messages to his former teammates complaining about the poor standard and climate in France.
Barcelona directors showed those very messages to De Jong to convince him that he should join them instead of Paris Saint-Germain – and it worked.
Neymar’s unhappiness with the lack of competition in Ligue 1 has been well documented in recent months and it seems Barcelona used that to their advantage to win the race to sign De Jong.
Some will argue that the Blaugrana acted unethically, but let’s face it, most European clubs are prepared to do anything to get what they want nowadays.
Be the first to comment