Paris Saint Germain Want To Sign FC Barcelona Star Frenkie De Jong

Paris Saint Germain are interested in signing star midfielder Frenkie de Jong from FC Barcelona, according to reports.

The Catalans are currently in financial dire straits with debts exceeding $1.5bn, and a negative salary limit of -€144mn (-$154mn) means they have to offload players ahead of next season in order to make new signings and pay them.

While youngsters such as Pedri and Ansu Fati are unsellable and tied to long-term contracts with €1bn ($1.07) release clauses, as the club hope to lock Gavi down in a similar arrangement, De Jong is considered Barca’s player with the “biggest market” in the upcoming transfer window.

Given that his former Ajax manager Erik ten Hag has just been unveiled there, De Jong has been most strongly linked to Manchester United until now.

Yet reports from France – or more specifically Le Parisien and Footmercato – claim that Paris Saint Germain will enter the race for the 25-year-old, who would allegedly love to play alongside Kylian Mbappe after the Russia 2018 World Cup winner snubbed Real Madrid and signed a bumper new deal with the Qatari-backed giants last weekend.

Mbappe will stay in Ligue 1 until at least 2025, and De Jong should be a Barca player until at least 2026 on paper. But the Blaugrana possibly being forced to sell him reportedly puts the 2018-2019 Champions League’s best midfielder in the shop window for a fee between €80-100mn ($85.5-107mn) which PSG could easily afford.

Snatching De Jong away from Camp Nou would see a third big Barca star switching the Catalan capital for its French counterpart in three of the last six summers, after PSG smashed the world transfer record for Neymar in 2017 by paying his $260mn release clause, and then picked up Lionel Messi on a free transfer in 2021.

Simultaneously, some financial manoeuvering might not making it necessary to get rid of De Jong at all, with separate reports claiming that a €900mn ($960mn) deal with Goldman Sachs and All Sport Finance to sell several rights is currently being negotiated.

First team coach Xavi Hernandez also sees the playmaker as important, and has tipped De Jong to “mark an era” at the club he joined for €75mn ($80.2mn) in 2019 despite the rise of Gavi and Pedri which some claim makes him surplus to requirements.