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Barcelona threaten legal action over Frenkie de Jong contract

Frenkie de Jong
© FC Barcelona
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In this latest twist of the De Jong saga, Barca’s current board claim to have identified their predecessors for alleged criminality in the player’s current contract.

Barcelona have told Frenkie de Jong that they wish to dissolve his current contract and return to the deal he was on before.

That’s according to The Athletic. The report claims the terms agreed on a new deal in October 2020 with the club’s previous board involved criminality. Barca wrote to De Jong on July 15 claiming to have found evidence of this and added they have grounds for legal action against all those involved.

The contract in question was a two-year extension until June 2026 that involved €18 million of De Jong’s wages being deferred for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 campaigns, and then being paid in installments across the following four seasons.

Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu and his board, however, insist the deal De Jong signed in 2020 had approval from all legal parties and LaLiga.

Laporta wishes to keep the player

The 25-year-old midfielder has been one of the main topics of the summer transfer rumors. Barcelona are in financial trouble. They want to offload De Jong’s salary, but there are only two solutions: sell or reach an agreement over his deferred wages. This situation has prompted talk of Premier League moves to either Manchester United or Chelsea.

It appears, though, that the latter is current president Joan Laporta’s preference based on his comments on Sunday.

“Frenkie is our player and we want him to stay at Barcelona,” Laporta said. “He wants to stay, too.

“With him and his teammates, we have a very powerful midfield. He has offers, but we want him to stay.”

The former Ajax man scored the sixth and final goal of Barcelona’s 6-0 hammering of Mexican club Pumas during Sunday’s Joan Gamper Trophy exhibition in a second-half cameo.

Xavi Hernandez’s side begin their La Liga campaign at home against Rayo Vallecano on Saturday.

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