Barcelona membership president Joan Laporta has admitted that whereas he’ll do every part in his energy to maintain Frenkie de Jong, he refused to rule out the potential for him leaving for Manchester United.
90min understands that Man Utd and Barcelona have agreed an €85m payment for the midfielder, however the deal is being held up by De Jong’s insistence on being paid round €20m in deferred wages. Nevertheless, the Red Devils are remaining affected person of their pursuit.
Laporta has spoken in regards to the 25-year-old’s future a lot in current weeks and has usually insisted that he desires the Dutchman to remain at Camp Nou, however when requested by CBS Sports whether or not he could categorically verify that De Jong will not finish the switch window at Man Utd, he admitted it was still potential.
“In football, you never know. I can’t say categorically. It all depends on the different parties. But in principle, I can say there is a strong possibility he stays, and I can say as president I will do my best for him to stay at Barcelona,” Laporta stated.
He added: “The first thing to say is we want Frenkie to stay at Barcelona. We love the player and him as a human being. I want him to stay at Barcelona. He’s a high-quality player and a good guy. I also know that he wants to stay.”
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When requested in regards to the want for De Jong to take a pay reduce, Laporta stated: “All we are doing with Frenkie is the same as the rest of the squad. The signings coming in have adjusted their salary to the new structure. But Frenkie has a contract and we respect that. We can’t force him to take a pay cut. It’s his decision
“We try to handle the soccer membership in a prudent and sustainable approach. So we now have to have these talks and we accomplish that in a relaxed and thought of approach. We have defined the state of affairs and are grateful to any gamers who will help us. It was the identical with Dembele and I’m very grateful to him. And after months of talks, he accepted a renegotiation of his wage and he might be happy with his determination.
“[If De Jong doesn’t take a pay cut] Then he will continue. Has has a contract. We will respect that decision. For us, he’s a Barcelona player. We count on him.”