Frenkie De Jong transfer: Barcelona, PSG and a saga of love and hate
Two of Europe's biggest clubs went all out to sign one of the best teenagers of his generation - but it was Barcelona who ended up as victors
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A diamond in the rough, a tug-of-war between Paris and Barcelona and two feuding houses in turn both exacting and swearing vengeance.
As Frenkie De Jong’s transfer saga goes, it could have been a Shakespearean tragedy or a film about a heist gone wrong - but that will depend on which side of the fence you sit.
If you’re like most people and you’re just up here getting splinters to enjoy the view, you will have seen Manchester City bow out of the dwindling race for the prodigiously talented Ajax midfielder in the last month, leaving two final contenders for those sorts of semi-silent cold wars that we now see conducted when it comes to securing big signings.
Many reports in Spain, anguished and panting, have long since declared the De Jong deal dead and Paris Saint-Germain’s endless pit of money too much to turn down. Those reports were covering double-page spreads in Holland too. As recently as last week the consensus was that he would be joining PSG for next season, the latest blow landed by the nouveau riche on European football’s withering establishment clubs.
And then it all changed.
Perhaps De Jong’s people had always planned it like this; convince Barcelona and the world that PSG’s money had been enough and then dangle some hope, praying it lures them into one final offensive. Barca president Josep Bartomeu flew to Amsterdam last week to make a final, impassioned plea to the youngster’s entourage and it seemingly worked. The fee went up, the salary did too and the deal, more or less, went down.
For a club with an already bulging salary column in its accounts – no team in the history of global sports pays more than them, an average of £10m annually to each first-team player – it will be another weight on the club’s finances but will, at the same time, lift the weight of fear that Barca, one of Europe’s traditional giants, were getting left behind.
It takes quite something to outbid PSG for a player. It takes quite something else to convince them that your club, so reliant on Lionel Messi to paper over the cracks of your institutional malaise for over a decade, is the best place to let a young player’s future unravel.
Now though, Barcelona are prepared for war. They “expect an attack” according to some Spanish newspapers on Wednesday morning. The transfer of Neymar to PSG broke the relations between these two clubs and the simmering resentment ever since has only been exacerbated by Barca eliminating PSG from the Champions League, the only competition in which the French champions can make themselves truly relevant. The Parisians often swagger but there is still that new-kid-on-the-block insecurity, still a feeling that the Catalans are trying to shut them out of elite football’s most exclusive arrangements and saying nasty things about them to the other big kids in Europe’s wealthiest playground.
The thing with players like De Jong - who looks set to be a superstar for many years to come – is that if you miss out on him now, the shape of the transfer market means you will likely never get another chance to sign him.
After PSG essentially short-circuited the business by paying Neymar’s release clause, a previously unthought-of £200m up-front payment before tax, Spain’s big clubs have looked to PSG-proof their biggest stars. Release clauses have gone up.
The only way a club like Barcelona would be able to buy De Jong from Paris Saint-Germain in the future is if the Dutchman didn’t pan out or if a financial apocalypse occurred at the Parc des Princes. If De Jong’s career progresses as expected, utterly enamoured by his talent, Barca have decided they can’t take the risk of letting him go elsewhere. That means paying up to get your man and bracing for whatever revenge may come your way from the club that is looking to emulate you in many ways but destroy you in far more.
Frenkie De Jong’s transfer has been a saga of love and hate, and it isn’t over yet. Curiously, it’s barely the start of his story while for Barcelona and PSG it’s just the latest battle in a war showing few signs of cooling off.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments