FC Barcelona and PSG are two of the great European teams, and in the last few hours it was learned that they bid until the last minute in 2019 for an exceptional player, who is currently a midfielder for the culé team. This is not a rumor, but a confession from Eric Abidal, former sports director of the Catalan club.
Eric Abidal’s confessions risk hurting some followers. The former sports director of FC Barcelona spoke about the big issues he handled during his time in Catalonia. The legendary AS Monaco and Les Bleus central defender claims he managed to prevent Frenkie de Jong from joining Paris Saint-Germain in 2019.
“The signing I am most proud of is Frenkie de Jong. I know that at that time he had an agreement with quite a few clubs, in particular PSG. And I discovered it during the Real Madrid-Ajax match (1-4, eighth round of the Champions League, editor’s note), where it was very clear that we really needed to have him on our team: “I think the important thing is information, and his dream was to play for Barça”said: ‘I didn’t speak with the Barça coach (Ernesto Valverde at that time)that’s probably why I made the decision to go to PSG. because I spoke with Tuchel” (PSG coach at that time). And I simply told him: ‘Barça is the institution that signs you, it is not the coach.’ And the second thing is: ‘at the cost of the transfer fee, you know that you will be the undisputed owner!’ Players always have that doubt. It wasn’t easy but we managed to achieve our goals,” Abidal explained to Free Foot remembering his talk with the Dutchman.
Five years later, De Jong struggled to regain the level seen at Ajax Amsterdam. The Dutch international was often absent through injury, moved into positions that did not belong to him and rarely felt as comfortable as he did in Holland.
The Barça midfielder would have been reluctant to extend his contract and could decide to leave Barcelona next season. The Blaugrana would like to lower his salary to extend his contract, something that the player would deny. It is worth remembering that he was pushed towards the exit for almost a year, when Barcelona’s accounts were in the red. An attitude that those close to the player did not appreciate.
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