Everybody wants a piece of Frenkie De Jong at the moment.
Ajax’s midfield warrior has been the talk of the town this season, impressing us all with a string of decent performances for both club and country.
In fact, he’s been so good, that Barcelona have decided to make him their marquee signing this summer.
Can’t wait for that, can we?
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Man City, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich were all predictably linked with the midfielder earlier in the season, but it’s Barca who’ve pipped them to all to his signature.
And according to reports, it looks like Ajax are going to receive a sizeable spread for the youngster; somewhere in the region of €75million.
So with that in mind, we should all spare a thought for poor old Willem II, shouldn’t we?
After all, De Jong learned his trade with the Dutch minnows, rising through Willem II’s academy before moving to Ajax in 2015 for a ‘symbolic’ €1.
That’s right, you could’ve bought one of Holland’s rising stars for the same price as a pint of lager in Benidorm.
But in hindsight, the deal is actually a stroke of genius, as the club negotiated a 10% re-sale percentage that could amount to a staggering 63% of their budget when he eventually leaves Amsterdam.
At the time of the move, De Jong was just a teenager with only a few games under his belt and bucket-loads of potential; Willem II were resigned to the fact that they’d lose him to one of the big boys, one way or another.
So in many ways, everyone’s a winner.
A top club will sign a very good young player, Ajax will get a tasty sum of money and Willem II will get a cut that will certainly help them out.
What’s more, De Jong received the kind of development at Ajax that he simply would’ve missed out on at Willem II.
We all like a happy ending, don’t we?
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