FC Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick has made a decision on his divisive midfielder Frenkie de Jong according to SPORT, which cited anonymous sources.
The Dutchman was expected to become a club legend when Barca paid Ajax €75 million ($79.3 million) for him in 2019, and consequentially beat the likes of Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City to the signature of a player voted the Champions League's best center-of-the-park technician as his former employers embarked on an unlikely run to the mentioned competition's semi-finals.
Yet save for single Copa del Rey and La Liga titles, things haven't turned out as planned for the 27-year-old.
He was almost sold in 2022 after Barca and Manchester United agreed a deal worth $90 million (€85 million) according to The Athletic, yet De Jong ultimately refused to make the move because of a desire to succeed under then-head coach Xavi Hernandez and play in the Champions League which the Premier League outfit couldn't offer at the time.
Two years on, it appears that De Jong is also refusing to extend his contract and spread out pay deferred during the pandemic, or at least entertain talks with Sporting Director Deco and President Joan Laporta.
According to SPORT, the club believes that he is purposely running down his deal, which expires in mid-2026, in order to leave on a free and therefore put himself in line to receive a bumper signing-on bonus from his next employer.
Opinion is split on what to do with De Jong behind the scenes at Barca, but his manager Hansi Flick is clear-minded on the topic according to the same newspaper.
The ex-Bayern Munich boss reportedly considers De Jong to be an "important asset", and in the summer stopped any debate about the playmaker possibly leaving because he views him as a midfielder "with many virtues and skills that make him perfect to wear the Blaugrana shirt".
With De Jong only just returning from an ankle knock that left him sidelined between April and October, Flick will be patient.
While De Jong has put in some pedestrian performances in Barca's recent defeats, there have also been positive displays such as his role in a 4-0 thrashing of Real Madrid in El Clasico and a goal and assist he bagged midweek when Mallorca was pummelled 5-1.
De Jong might be way down the pecking order at the moment to the likes of Pedri and Marc Casado, but he has proven before on Xavi's watch that he's more than capable of emerging as an "untouchable" in the face of high-quality positional rivalry.