FC Barcelona have informed their midfielder Frenkie de Jong that they want to nullify his existing contract and return to the terms he had when he first signed for the Spanish giants.
They are claiming that the terms given to him by the club’s former board, led by Josep Maria Bartomeu, had certain irregularities and now provide grounds for legal action against those involved.
According to The Athletic’s sources, Barcelona wrote to De Jong on July 15 claiming to have found evidence of criminality on the part of the administrators who signed his renewal in October 2020.
The 2 years extension until 2026 which was made public alongside those of Gerard Pique, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen and Clement Lenglet – reduced his salary for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons, leaving €18 million to be spread over the following four seasons.
A letter sent to De Jong last month was to notify the former Ajax player that Catalan side believe they are in a position to commence criminal proceedings to establish what happened in relation to the signing of his contract and determine where responsibility for the alleged irregularity is spotted.
In addition, the club want to revoke the current contract and return to the previous agreed terms in the year when he was signed back in 2019.
Sources at Barcelona suggested to that there have already been talks between Barcelona and De Jong’s representatives, in which the current board pointed that the previous board may have carried out some irregularities and also warned that De Jong and his representative may be part of.
This could prove the point that Evgeniy Levchenko made, president of the Dutch players’ union, who slipped the idea that De Jong could be a victim of extortion, something Joan Laporta rebuffed.
The global players’ union FIFPRO is known to be monitoring the situation keenly with Barcelona’s attempts to try to get the player to accept a much reduced wages of €18 million euros he agreed to defer during the pandemic.
