FC Barcelona star Frenkie de Jong publicly revealed that he plans to renew his contract at the club while speaking to VZ.

The Dutchman joined the Catalans from Ajax as part of a $85 million (€75 million) transfer in 2019, which is the year he was voted the best midfielder in the Champions League after the Amsterdam outfit beat the likes of Juventus and Real Madrid on the way to the elite European competition’s semifinals.

Amid the pandemic, he agreed to an extension which saw him defer parts of his salary. This arrangement made him the highest paid member of Hansi Flick’s squad, and De Jong has often been linked with exits from the club ever since.

In 2022, he perhaps came closest to leaving when Barca reportedly accepted an offer from Manchester United. When all was said and done, however, De Jong stayed put and has just completed arguably his strongest season in Blaugrana.

Returning from an ankle knock which kept him on the sidelines through the Netherlands’ run to the Euro semifinals and the start of 2024/2025, he returned to Flick’s first XI and dislodged Marc Casado to partner Pedri as their team completed an impressive domestic treble.

Given that his contract expires in just over 12 months’ time, getting De Jong to renew is a pressing matter of business for Sporting Director Deco after he recently managed to get key players including Pedri and Lamine Yamal to sign on the dotted line.

If comments that De Jong made to VZ are anything to go by, though, Deco and Culers shouldn’t worry that the number 21 will leave for free next year.

“I think I’m going to renew for Barca,” De Jong said. “I can’t be one hundred percent sure, but if everything goes well it will be done. My intention is to renew this summer, but we’ll see what happens. It is a negotiation and you cannot say when. The important thing is that both parties want it and I think we will reach an agreement.”

One obstacle possibly getting in the way of this development could be that De Jong is reportedly in a battle to leave his agent, which is a matter that he “can’t say anything about” at the moment.

“Now I’m focused with the national team and then we’ll see,” he stated on this.

De Jong feels that constant complaints or analysis of his form are exaggerated “too much”. “I had a long injury and I suffered a lot with my ankle, it was difficult but I’m fine now. Before the injury I was playing very well but maybe we didn’t have such a good team and you didn’t see it as much. People now notice my game more,” he explained.

“Before I got injured I was in the best moment of my game. I don’t think this year I did much better than the previous ones, but the titles we have won and the victories have given more visibility to my game,” he reiterated.

FC Barcelona and De Jong’s season still had some disappointment

While as said it was a successful campaign for FC Barcelona that yielded three Spanish trophies, there was disappointment in the Champions League where Flick’s men fell to beaten finalist Inter Milan in the last four. “It hurt a lot to lose against Inter. When you’re so close to the final and you end up failing, it’s always painful. It wasn’t to be and the Champions League was deservedly won by PSG. They deserved the title,” De Jong said about this.