De Jong Still Refuses To Lower FC Barcelona Salary, Despite Club Now Wanting Him To Stay

Frenkie de Jong is still refusing to lower his salary at FC Barcelona, despite the club now wanting him to stay.

This has been reported by SPORT on Monday morning, who say that the Dutchman and his camp “are not in the mood to lower his salary as they understand that they already made an effort last season and they hope that what he has signed by contract will be fulfilled”.

The 25-year-old joined the Blaugrana in 2019 as part of a €75mn ($76.4mn) deal after becoming the Champions League’s best midfielder for Ajax as they reached the semi-finals that year.

With the cash-strapped Catalans in debts of around $1.5bn, however, and needing to free up space on the wage bill in order to navigate Financial Fair Play rules and La Liga’s strict salary cap, De Jong was put up for sale before the start of the last season.

This attracted a solid approach from Manchester United, who agreed an €85mn ($86.5mn) deal with Barca some time ago.

Yet due to United’s lack of football in the mentioned elite European club competition, and a desire to succeed in Xavi Hernandez’s promising sporting project at Camp Nou, De Jong has insisted on staying put at his current club.

Through the activation of three ‘economic levers’, though, with a fourth reportedly on the way this week, Barca have been swaying more towards keeping De Jong in recent weeks amid fresh interest from Chelsea.

On Sunday, De Jong helped strengthen his case tremendously by putting on a masterful display in the Joan Gamper Trophy against UNAM Pumas, and scored Barca’s final goal in a 6-0 rout of the Mexicans while earning the praise of his coach afterwards.

“I don’t know what will happen to Frenkie de Jong,” admitted Xavi post-match.

“Until August 31, anything can happen. He knows what I think and what the club wants and needs. Of course I’m counting on him, he’s a great player,” the former midfield added.

According to SPORT, Barca president Joan Laporta has personally told De Jong that he is counting on him too, but he needs the youngster to fall in line with new club policy that sees no player earning more than €10mn ($10.2mn) a year – something which De Jong is apparently reluctant to do after already taking a paycut once before and deferring parts of his salary.

As part of an agreement struck on the watch of Laporta’s predecessor Josep Bartomeu, De Jong is set to earn €18mn ($18.4mn) this season and €88.58mn ($90.2mn) over the last four years of his contract.

Yet this is simply unaffordable for the club in its current financial predicament, and De Jong’s stubborn stance will give confidence to both Manchester United and Chelsea in their quest to snatch him away to the PremierPINC
League.