De Jong: Barcelona told me they didn’t want to keep me
FT Desk
- 6 Jul 2022 12:00 BST
- 3 min read
Luuk de Jong has looked back with pride at his time with Barcelona and has no hard feelings over the club’s decision to let him go.
De Jong, who turns 32 this year, was an unpopular signing with Barcelona’s fans when he arrived on a season-long loan from Sevilla in the summer of 2021.
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He was often whistled at the start of the campaign but won supporters over and ended up being a successful signing as something of a super-sub.
What did Luuk de Jong say?
“I’ve been a Barcelona player and at one point a full Camp Nou chanted my name. At Sevilla we won a Europa League and I decided the final with two goals. I can look back with a feeling of pride,” De Jong recalled.
“Although I’m still not aware of everything. I think only after my career will I realise how beautiful it’s been.”
“I didn’t win a title at Barcelona but the satisfaction is there in other things. I have received lots of nice reactions after my departure from Barcelona. From the whole club, not just the manager and the players, but also the directors. They said the appreciated the way in which I also comported myself.”
“In the second half of the season, the feeling around me completely changed. I am happy at having said during the winter break: ‘I’m not going to go, I will keep fighting and then I will see how many minutes they give me.’ Even if they don’t give me any.”
De Jong ended the campaign with a respectable seven goals and there was even talk he may stay at the club permanently.
However, Barcelona’s well-publicised financial problems meant that a return to Sevilla was always likely.
He has now moved back to PSV in a €3.5 million transfer.
So was there a chance he could have stayed at Barcelona?
“Could I have stayed at a healthy Barcelona for another year? I don’t know,” he said.
“At the end of the season we went to Jordi Cruyff and asked ‘how is the situation?’ The management at Barcelona indicated that they were working with a lot of players. I wasn’t a priority and I understood that.”
“I chose my own path. In a healthy Barcelona, who knows, I could have played a season more. But I also could have chosen PSV in that scenario.”
De Jong has scored 208 goals in 524 games during his career.
