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De Jong admits Barcelona 'pressure' to leave during Man Utd transfer saga
Suraj Radia
- 18 Oct 2025 11:58 BST
- 4 min read
News
Frenkie de Jong has opened up about the transfer speculation that has surrounded his time at Barcelona and admitted the club had tried to sell him in the past.
De Jong was subject to an intense transfer saga in 2022 during Erik ten Hag’s first summer at Manchester United in which his former manager desperately tried to bring him to Old Trafford.
Current ETV
Frenkie de Jong
M, DM (C)
Barcelona
Frenkie de Jong
M, DM (C)
Barcelona
ETV Range
€21.7M - €26.6M
Barcelona were in the thick of their financial crisis and had been keen to sell De Jong to United in order to get his wages off their books but the 28-year-old rejected the move despite ‘pressure’ from the club.
“I have always been clear that I wanted to stay at Barcelona,” De Jong told Mundo Deportivo. “I have always been happy, with the team, with playing here.
“There was a time when there was more pressure, as there was also another time when there were people at the club who wanted to sell me to make money. At one point, I could understand them. The club was in a difficult financial period and I was a player on the market.
“But I was clear: I wanted to stay at Barcelona. And I was confident that, if I was well, I would play. It has always been like that. In the end, when you have a contract, if you decide you want to stay, you stay. That's why I wasn't afraid."
De Jong blasts speculation surrounding high wages at Barcelona
De Jong extended his contract until 2029 earlier this month, having previously held out over a new deal after reports that he was still owed unpaid wages since deferring his salary during the pandemic.
Reports at the time suggested that De Jong, who is among the club’s highest earners, had been asked to surrender up to €18 million in unpaid wages, prompting his refusal to take a wage cut, however the midfielder insisted the speculation had been misleading.
"I'm not going to say what I'm earning," De Jong said during the announcement of his new deal. "They [the media] have always talked a lot about it, and I've already said a couple of times that what I supposedly earned before was greatly exaggerated, and the [accurate] figures have never been revealed.
"I think that has affected how people see me a little, because if they read in the newspapers that Frenkie earns that much and that he's the highest earner in Europe, which wasn't true, that does affect how people see me."
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