Xavi Asks De Jong To Take Huge Pay Cut To Stay At FC Barcelona

Xavi Hernandez and FC Barcelona have asked Frenkie de Jong to take a hefty pay cut in order to stay at the club.

The Catalans and Manchester United are said to have had a €75mn ($76.5mn) agreement in place for the Dutchman’s transfer for a while now, but De Jong is intent on staying put at Camp Nou where he has played since joining from Ajax in a deal for that exact same fee in 2019.

United are now managed by Erik ten Hag, who also led De Jong in Amsterdam and oversaw his rise to become the 2018/2019 season’s best midfielder in the Champions League when they embarked on an unlikely run to the semi-finals together.

Yet the Mancunians being unable to offer the playmaker football in UEFA’sEFA
elite club competition plus his love of life in Catalonia where he has just bought a house have made De Jong reluctant to move to northwestern England.

Ahead of the Blaugrana flying out to the U.S. on Saturday last week for their preseason tour, reports circled that Barca had told De Jong he must leave and reach personal terms with United in order to free up much-needed space on the wage bill amid Financial Fair Play regulations.

Elsewhere, some outlets went as far to say that there had been a threat not to take him across the Atlantic if he didn’t obey their commands.

Ever the model professional, De Jong has done what has been asked of him by first team coach Xavi on the field and has filled in at center back in two victories over Inter Miami and Real Madrid in recent days.

According to AS, though, the change of position, where De Jong played before under Xavi’s predecessor Ronald Koeman, was agreed upon by the manager and the youngster in a conversation they had this week.

In the meeting, from which Xavi and De Jong are both said to have left “satisfied”, Xavi apparently told his charge that he counts on him for next season and that he has a future on his watch if prepared to operate in other areas of the pitch and take a considerable pay cut.

Thanks to the mismanagement of previous president Josep Bartomeu, De Jong is reportedly set to receive €30mn ($30.6mn) next term which is three times more than the limit Bartomeu’s successor Joan Laporta has set for first team players.

In order to continue plying his trade for the La Liga giants, it has been suggested that De Jong must slash his take home pay “by almost half”, and AS also say that De Jong was “receptive to making an economic effort to facilitate the registration of new reinforcements” such as Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski.