Manchester United And FC Barcelona Reach Frenkie De Jong Transfer Agreement

Manchester United and FC Barcelona have reached an agreement for the transfer of Frenkie de Jong.

This has been claimed by the Onze program on Esport3 in Catalonia, and comes after United’s CEO and director of football, Richard Arnold and John Murtough landed in Barcelona on Monday.

Later yesterday afternoon, the duo met with Mateu Alemany, Jordi Cruyff and Rafa Yuste representing the Blaugrana, and their sit-down concluded with an agreement between the European giants for the 25-year-old midfielder.

According to Oriol Domenech from Esport3, the final figure for the sale is €85mn ($85.05mn) including add-ons.

While Barca will not get the €100mn ($100.08mn) they originally wanted for De Jong, a sale for the already quoted figures still represents a profit on what they paid for the midfielder three years ago when beating the likes of Paris Saint Germain and Manchester City to his signature.

In 2019, they paid €75mn ($75.06mn) to sign him from Ajax where new United boss Erik Ten Hag extracted the best club form from the Netherlands international on an unlikely run to the Champions League semi-finals.

Selling De Jong would also see Barcelona president Joan Laporta go back on his word. Just over a week ago, he said that the club had “no intention of selling him” and that De Jong was also not keen on switching allegiances.

“I will do everything in my power to make him stay,” Laporta also vowed.

If United and Barca have indeed struck an agreement, however, both parties still need to persuade De Jong to accept personal terms with his potential new club.

De Jong has stated both publicly and privately that he does not wish to leave Catalonia, though there are reports that he has become angered by his current cash-strapped employers’ willingness to negotiate his departure.

Were he to continue at Camp Nou, though, De Jong would have to take a significant pay cut to help the club balance the books which is something that Mundo Deportivo say the player and his agent are not contemplating.

Selling De Jong would help Barca focus on other signings such as Raphinha from Leeds United and Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich.