Laporta: We didn’t threaten Frenkie de Jong
FT Desk
- 9 Oct 2022 22:00 BST
- 3 min read
Barcelona president Joan Laporta has confirmed the club received big offers from the Premier League for Frenkie de Jong and insists that the Dutchman was never forced into cutting his salary.
It has been widely reported that Barcelona attempted to sell De Jong all summer, having been in negotiations with first Manchester United and then Chelsea.
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The Blaugrana allegedly made it clear to De Jong that if he refused a move away from the club then he would have to reduce his salary in order to remain.
The reason for that is because Barcelona needed to raise cash by selling players and lowering their wage bill in order meet La Liga spending requirements, which they eventually did by selling off club assets.
In the end, De Jong is said to have refused to join Man Utd and Chelsea as he preferred to stay at Barcelona.
De Jong also refused to reduce his salary, with reports that Barcelona even threatened legal action if he doesn’t do so.
The 25-year-old was said to be angry that Barcelona were refusing to pay him €18 million in wages he is owed after he agreed to defer them to help the club through their post-Coronavirus financial crisis.
But Laporta has denied most of these claims, saying that it was Barcelona who decided not to sell De Jong and that they didn’t try to force him into reducing his salary.
What did Laporta say about De Jong?
“We received many bids from the Premier League for Frenkie, big money,” Laporta confirmed.
“But we decided to keep him as he is a quality player.
“We’ve never forced any player to reduce his salary, we just asked in peaceful way.”
De Jong has largely been a squad player so far in the 2022-23 season, raising questions over whether he will eventually leave next year.
