Liverpool have reportedly made an offer to FC Barcelona to sign Frenkie de Jong
Liverpool have reportedly made an offer to FC Barcelona to sign Frenkie de Jong.
Liverpool have made an offer to FC Barcelona to sign their midfielder Frenkie de Jong.
This has been reported by Spanish transfer news outlet Futbol Total, who have confirmed claims made by Liverpool fan account Talk of the Kop on Wednesday afternoon.
According to the source, the Premier
This package falls short of the €75mn ($74.7mn) that Barca paid Ajax for the 25-year-old in 2019 and is some way off the €85mn ($84.6mn) fee agreed with Manchester United in mid-July.
After the Catalans accepted the proposal from Liverpool's bitter rivals, however, De Jong reportedly turned the Red Devils down due to their lack of Champions League football and a row over unpaid wages with his current employers.
Finishing second in the English top flight last year and runners up to Real Madrid on the continent, Liverpool can offer De Jong football in UEFA's
This term, however, Jurgen Klopp's injury-ravaged squad with shortages in midfield has hardly come flying out of the tracks.
First struggling on their way to two draws in 2022/2023, they then suffered a 2-1 defeat to a previously fellow winless United on Monday at Old Trafford.
With a week to spare until the transfer window closes, Barca would also be interested in offloading De Jong so that they can make space on the wage bill and also launch a last gasp attempt to sign Bernardo Silva from United's crosstown rivals Manchester City.
While De Jong has been adamant on staying at Camp Nou and making a go of things under coach Xavi Hernandez, he has also been reluctant to reduce his salary by 50% to fall in line with a new policy on president Joan Laporta's watch that allegedly sees no first team player take home more than €10mn ($9.95mn) a year.
Thanks to a deal struck under the regime of Laporta's predecessor Josep Bartomeu in October 2020, where he extended his contract until 2026 but deferred part of his wages, De Jong is set to earn €18mn ($17.9mn) this season and then €88.58mn ($88.2mn) over the last four years of his arrangement.
