De Jong FLATLY rejects January move to Man Utd

FT Desk
FT Desk
  • 1 Nov 2022 08:52 GMT
  • 3 min read
Frenkie de Jong, Barcelona, Manchester United
© ProShots

Frenkie de Jong has made it clear to Man Utd and Chelsea that he has, according to Sport, no interest whatsoever in leaving Barcelona in January.

The Dutchman’s future has again been in question ahead of the January market, given the fact that Barcelona are still keen to move him on.

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These questions started getting louder when De Jong struggled to play regularly in the opening weeks of the season.

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However, the 25-year-old has seen his minutes increase recently and, according to Sport, is “happy at Camp Nou and has no intention of listening to offers in January.”

De Jong is said to still “not be very impressed by the project at Man Utd”. He is more open to a possible move to Chelsea in the future, but not in January.

His intention is still to have a long and successful career at Barcelona.

Man Utd bid for De Jong

Man Utd were in negotiations to sign De Jong for much of the summer.

Barcelona are understood to have accepted an €85m bid from Man Utd in July, and made it clear to that they wanted him to move to Old Trafford.

The reason for that is because Barcelona needed to raise cash by selling players and lowering their wage bill in order meet La Liga spending requirements, which they eventually did by selling off club assets and shares in their TV deals.

In the end, De Jong refused to join Man Utd and stayed at Barcelona, despite interest from Chelsea and Bayern Munich as well.

Frenkie de Jong, Barcelona, 2022/23
© ProShots

The Blaugrana also tried to force De Jong to reduce his salary if he didn’t move, which the player refused to do, with reports that Barcelona even threatened legal action.

De Jong was furious that Barcelona refused to pay him €18 million in wages he was allegedly owed after he agreed to defer them to help the club through their post-Coronavirus financial crisis.

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