Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong has traveled to Miami with the club on Saturday night, but the Catalan club is still interested in offloading the midfielder to Manchester United.
The 25-year-old Dutch international is passionate about staying in Spain, but Barcelona has agreed with Manchester United to pay them a fee of £63 million plus £8.5 million because they need to get Frenkie De Jong off the payroll as soon as possible so they can sign fresh players. The Spanish giants Barcelona has already introduced four new players this summer, including the transfer of Brazilian Raphinha from Leeds United.
And on Saturday they reached an agreement with Bayern Munich for Robert Lewandowski to join them on a £42.5 million deal.
The club is still interested in acquiring Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta. But they must reduce their €560 million (£477 million) wage bill to register the new signings with La Liga which is why the club needs Frenkie De Jong to leave since his contract allows him to earn €20 million (£17 million) next season.
Although he has so far resisted their efforts to make him leave, Barcelona is convinced that things will turn around before the transfer window closes at the end of next month.
However, Sportsmail reported earlier this week that Richard Arnold and John Murtough from Manchester United have been in Spain, as to negotiate a deal with Jordi Cruyff, the sporting director at Barcelona, Mateu Alemany, the director of football, and Rafa Yuste, the vice president of sports.
Official. Frenkie de Jong is included in the squad of Barcelona’s pre-season tour in US. 🚨🛩🇳🇱 #FCB
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 16, 2022
Still no changes: no agreement on player side with Manchester United, no intention to leave as things stand. The clubs have agreed €75m fee plus €10m in add-ons. pic.twitter.com/1lnDwwDuVV
Meanwhile, Bayern has made it very clear that they have no interest in signing Man United star Cristiano Ronaldo, who is unhappy at the Premier League club. The five times Ballon d’Or winner has been linked with a move away from Man United and many clubs across Europe have reportedly shown interest in signing him.
Although Bayern Munich was included to be among the clubs that are interested in Cristiano Ronaldo, their sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic has once again debunked the speculation.
He said: “I have a lot of respect for Cristiano Ronaldo, his successes, and his career. But once again, that was and is not a topic for us.”
On the other hand, Barcelona has named a 28-man team that will be traveling to the United States and it includes recent signings Raphinha, Franck Kessie, and Andreas Christensen.
Leeds United winger Raphinha finally joined Barca this week after a stretched exchange that nearly resulted in the Brazilian signing for Chelsea before securing the £55 million transfer to Spain, which he has referred to as his dream move.
Regarding Robert Lewandowski, a deal for £42 million has been reached with the German Bundesliga champions, and the Polish star is scheduled to depart on Sunday to complete the transfer.
