Man United have approached Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong to gauge the player’s interest in a summer transfer to Old Trafford having made moves to sign the Dutch star back in 2022.
The midfielder was Erik ten Hag’s top target during his first summer at the Manchester club back in 2022 and the Red Devils went all out to get the player for their new boss.
Man United agreed to pay Barcelona a guaranteed €75m plus add-ons worth up to €10m for De Jong, however, the Dutch talent opted to remain with the Catalan club and the Red Devils went on to sign Casemiro instead.
The Brazilian proved during the 2023/24 campaign that he is well past his best and Ten Hag needs a new midfielder heading into the upcoming season.
PSG’s Manuel Ugarte is Man United’s top target for the role with personal terms having already been agreed as talks between both clubs continue over a deal.
Should that transfer fail to materialise, Michael Plant reports that the Manchester club have made another approach to sign De Jong from Barcelona to enquire about what it would take to get a deal done this summer.
Nothing is advanced or concrete with the Netherlands international but it is believed that United would be willing to do a deal for around £30m/£40M.
Barcelona continue to struggle with financial issues and having just completed a €62m deal with RB Leipzig for Dani Olmo, the Catalan club may be open to selling De Jong to help balance the books.
The 27-year-old is also out of contract with the La Liga giants in 2026, which means this summer would be one of the best periods to sell the midfielder if a new deal is not coming his way. In addition to this, De Jong is earning a massive €72k per week with Barcelona and the Spanish giants would undoubtedly like to get this large payment off of their books.
There are a lot of reasons that make a deal for De Jong possible this summer, but it remains to be seen if Man United make an official approach to sign the Barcelona midfielder.
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