Barcelona tell Man Utd that De Jong is UNSELLABLE

Carlo Garganese

• 26 Dec 2022 11:45 GMT
• 3 min read

Manchester United's chances of signing Frenkie de Jong are now all but over after Barcelona took him off the market.

That is according to Sport, which reports that Barcelona now view the Dutch midfielder as indispenable and not for sale.

The Dutchman’s future has again been in question ahead of the January transfer window, with reports Barca still wanted to sell him.

READ MORE: Ronaldo v Messi in 2022-23

These questions started getting louder when De Jong struggled to play regularly in the opening weeks of the season.

However, the 25-year-old has seen his minutes increase recently and, according to Sport, is “happy at Camp Nou and has no intention of listening to offers in January.”

De Jong is also said to still “not be very impressed by the project at Man Utd”.

His intention is still to have a long and successful career at Barcelona.

And Sport reports on Monday that Barcelona now also consider De Jong unsellable, ending Man Utd's hopes of signing him.

Man Utd bid for De Jong

Man Utd were in negotiations to sign De Jong for much of the past summer.

Barcelona are understood to have accepted an €85m bid from Man Utd in July, and made it clear to that they wanted him to move to Old Trafford.

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 and shares in their TV deals.

In the end, De Jong refused to join Man Utd and stayed at Barcelona, despite interest from Chelsea and Bayern Munich as well.

The Blaugrana also tried to force De Jong to reduce his salary if he didn’t move, which the player refused to do, with reports that Barcelona even threatened legal action.

De Jong was furious that Barcelona refused to pay him €18 million in wages he was allegedly owed after he agreed to defer them to help the club through their post-Coronavirus financial crisis.

Sport further reports on Monday that Barca have now agreed to no longer push De Jong to reduce his salary, and the Dutchman will continue on his current wage.