Frenkie de Jong has played down talk of him joining Manchester United in the summer.
Ahead of the start of the current season, the Barcelona midfielder was linked with a move to Old Trafford for a number of months after Erik ten Hag, his former manager at Ajax, took charge at United.
While Barcelona were keen to sell De Jong due to the financial issues facing the club, and United made it clear that the Dutchman was their top target, the 25-year-old was reluctant to make the switch to England and instead opted to stay at the Camp Nou and fight for his place.
De Jong has been successful in doing that, becoming a regular for Xavi’s side and he has made 24 La Liga appearances this season. He played the full 90 minutes on Sunday as Barcelona beat Real Madrid to go 12 points clear at the top of the table.
Asked after the game whether he was going to be joining United this summer, De Jong made it clear that was not on his mind.
“No, I don’t think so,” De Jong told Ziggo Sport. “You never know of course. But I’m very happy in Barcelona.”
Ahead of the match, he said: “I hope I will play at the new Camp Nou. Barcelona is the club of my dreams, so I plan to stay for many years.”
After missing out on De Jong, United instead made a big-money move for Casemiro and the Brazilian has had a huge impact in his first season at Old Trafford.
Whether the club therefore have the same desire this summer to bring De Jong to the Premier League remains to be seen, but Ten Hag has continued to speak about the “unique quality” of the midfielder and how much admiration he has for him.
“In 2019, there was a lot of fascination with that Ajax team,” Ten Hag said ahead of United’s Europa League clash with Barcelona earlier this season.
“Frenkie brought a lot of that fascination and he has developed over the following years in Spain. He’s a fantastic player and has become even better. Playing out from the back, he always has time.
“It was a pleasure working with him. He would strengthen any squad in the world. He’s got unique quality.”
