Barcelona have informed Frenkie de Jong that they intend to terminate his contract because the conditions the previous board had offered him were unlawful.
This summer, there have been a lot of discussion about De Jong’s future. While Manchester United and Barça reached an agreement earlier this summer for an amount of €85 million, it had been reported also that Chelsea have recently formalised their interest in him.
The Dutchman’s insistence on receiving payment for approximately €20 million in deferred wages after agreeing to modify his contract during Barcelona’s financial difficulties in recent years has stalled that potential transfer to Old Trafford.
The Athletic, however, now claims that Barcelona contacted De Jong in the middle of July and informed him that they had discovered “criminality” regarding his most recent contract extension in October 2020 on the part of both the club and the player.
This agreement reduced De Jong’s wage for the 2020–2021 and 202–2022 seasons, with the difference being made up in the following four years. De Jong was thus bound to the team for an additional two years, until 2026. Similar contracts were signed by Clement Lenglet, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, and Gerard Pique.
De Jong has since received notice from the current Barcelona board that they believe De Jong’s contract violated some laws and that they are considering taking legal action to have the agreement revoked. Later, they suggested that the midfielder adhere to the terms of his original 2019 contract with the team.
Josep Maria Bartomeu, the president of Barcelona’s former board of directors, who approved these contracts, believes that everything about them was legal, not just because La Liga and other legal parties gave their approval.
