Soon Madrid dropped out, City never seemed to be truly in the race and it came down to Barcelona vs. PSG. Originally the Blaugrana were streets ahead, with the sporting history of the side, the connection between the two clubs (Johan Cruyff n’ all that) as well as offering Frenkie the chance to play with Leo Messi, something he has dreamed of doing, giving them an edge on the Parisians.
Fast-forward to early 2019 and PSG took a big leap forward in the race as it was deemed that they could offer more money to Ajax, the player, and his agent. This led to Barça upping their offer to €75m+11m in variables, which has finally secured the young Dutch master. But who are the winners and losers of De Jong completing this colossal move to the Camp Nou?
Here’s the thing: Frenkie was going to be a winner anywhere he went, because his talent ensured he was going to be joining one of the European elite sides and given he has the talent and mentality to play for them it was always going to work out for him. In particular: the massive pay rise would be delightful.
But the fact that it’s Barcelona in particular is brilliant for De Jong, because this is the best fit for him. Stylistically Barcelona’s passing football is in line with the way he has been taught to play at Willem II and Ajax. Moreover, perhaps most importantly, Barcelona have a well-established and thoroughly professional squad mentality.
Barcelona’s squad has the kind of environment that a young player could easily thrive in (so long as Ernesto Valverde plays them, anyway!) and with great leaders like Gerard Piqué, Leo Messi and Sergio Busquets on hand to keep him in line professionally as well as another young starlet in Ousmane Dembélé to relate to the pressures he’s under. This is perfect.
Loser: PSG
Nasser Al-Khelaifi and PSG have made themselves sworn enemies of Barcelona after their Champions League and transfer market clashes. The Blaugrana long courted Thiago Silva and then Marco Verratti, but not only did the Parisians hold firm and keep their men, they then shook up the footballing world by signing Neymar from Barcelona by activating his mammoth release clause.
That move, as well as signing the future king of football Kylian Mbappé, put them into the position where they felt they were now able to lure players with greater power than even Real Madrid and Barcelona. After all, they have a staggering excess of money and a governing body not that bothered about enforcing their own financial rules.
PSG figured this had been enough to sway De Jong and his agent, but Barcelona have outmuscled them for De Jong. They were all set to offer the Dutchman a starting and starring place in their side and basically handed him the keys to the midfield to run the side and he’s turned that down to fight his way into the Barcelona side. That’s not a good look for PSG.
Winner: The Barcelona board
The Barcelona board are often less than stellar, and when it comes to transfers they seem to operate at a baffling level of inadequacy and incompetence. Take, for example, the back-up striker situation where they failed to renew with their perfectly serviceable back-up Munir so turfed him out of the club for a measly €1m and then went on a weird search of some promising candidates before signing 31-year-old Kevin-Prince Boateng on loan. That’s just plain weird.
Even their pursuit of De Jong, which for so long seemed like an open goal due to the links between Barcelona and Ajax as well as the player’s stated desire to play with Leo Messi, was almost ruined through complacency and their overly aggressive courting of their back-up in case they missed out on De Jong. Moreover they appeared to have lost him to PSG, who after stealing Neymar from the Blaugrana seemed to be edging themselves onto the big boy table of European elites.
Beating PSG to Frenkie de Jong and securing one of the best youngsters in the world is a huge boost for the Barcelona board. Josep Bartomeu can be happy but special praise must go to Pep Segura and Eric Abidal who have got their man, and for a reasonable €75m (+€11m in variables) too!
Loser: Ivan Rakitic
Ivan Rakitic is an almost comically underrated midfielder. His skill-set is so widespread people mistake him for a John O’Shea type of utility man. But in reality he can do everything you want in a midfielder to a staggeringly high level of effectiveness. He’s great at stopping counters, great at playing penetrative passes and great at scoring.
Of course, his one major weakness is that he’s not very press-resistent. His close control and work in tight spaces allows him to be closed down easily and ruins the flow of Barça’s attacks. In this vein, Frenkie de Jong’s arrival is bad news. Firstly, it means that the club can now deploy three press-resistent midfielders (De Jong, Sergio Busquets and Arthur).
Worse, with the enormous financial outlay for De Jong, wages included, mean that players will have to leave to clear room on the budget. And Rakitic is a fairly sizeable earner who may no long be first-choice and has a contract expiring just far enough away (2021) that the club can still get a big transfer fee for him. It probably wouldn’t end well.
Winner: Xavi (and the purists)
A simple but powerful point: Barcelona have signed the most promising young midfielder in the world. Yeah, Kylian Mbappé, Matthijs de Ligt, and their own Ousmane Dembélé are among the more vibrant youngsters with a higher ceiling, but they aren’t midfielders. Moreover, they aren’t Barcelona-style midfielders.
Barcelona have often been accused of losing their way under Luis Enrique and now Ernesto Valverde. And the recent signings of Paulinho and Kevin-Prince Boateng do somewhat hint at that. But securing a talent like Frenkie de Jong seems like a return to their first principles of passing and possession. Pep Guardiola will be delighted!
Frenkie already has the Xavi seal of approval, with the Catalan pass-master saying the Dutch wonderkid (and team-mate De Ligt) would: “be very good for Barcelona. They don’t lose the ball, they bring it out well. They already have the Barcelona DNA coming from Ajax.” Look at how well Arthur has been received and multiply that by about 10. This is huge.
Loser: Adrien Rabiot (and Barcelona’s other targets)
Adrien Rabiot is a difficult player to deal with. He has been notably miserable at PSG, in part because they aren’t paying him what he feels he should be earning but also because he doesn’t like playing as a defensive midfielder. PSG tried to renew his deal (which expires in summer 2019) but he and his agent mother made it very difficult.
This led to Barcelona attempting to sign him in the summer for a cut-price deal, only to be rebuffed. The Blaugrana continued to cultivate him as a signing, likely as a cut-price back-up should they be unable to secure Frenkie de Jong. Well, they’ve now secured Frenkie de Jong and as a result they do not need Adrien Rabiot.
Not only will they not need Rabiot, but they probably won’t have the money to even pay for him or many others. €75m on De Jong is an enormous outlay, and has already seen the Blaugrana allegedly drop out of the race for Matthijs de Ligt, instead securing Toulouse’s Jean-Clair Todibo for free. Moreover Barça still need to sign a striker to be Luis Suárez’s heir – but with so much committed to De Jong then those striker targets can expect a long summer of waiting as the Blaugrana haggle as much as possible to save as much as possible.
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