Netherlands midfielder Frenkie de Jong reveals he was told to join Liverpool while training in Qatar
While speaking to the Dutch outlet ADNL (h/t the Mirror), Frenkie de Jong reveals that he was asked to join Liverpool as soon as he landed in Qatar for the FIFA World Cup 2022.
The Oranje were visiting the migrant workers who have worked hard day and night to make this World Cup a possibility. One of them could not hide his excitement and asked De Jong to leave Barcelona for Liverpool.
De Jong, while admitting the pure love received by the workers spoke candidly about how one of the workers tried to persuade him to join Liverpool.
“A lot of people came and there was no time to have a personal conversation. One guy told me I had to join Liverpool! We loved doing this, but now the focus goes to Senegal.”
De Jong was close to leaving Barcelona in the summer with Chelsea and Manchester United showing concrete interest in his signature. According to ESPN (h/t the Mirror), even Liverpool were thinking of going for the Dutchman with increasing midfield issues of their own.
However, none of the interest materialised even when Chelsea and United agreed on a deal in principle with Barcelona with the player reluctant to leave the Catalan club.
Many believe that firstly, Barcelona is the player’s dream club and secondly, there were some deferred wages owed to the player by the club which created a hurdle for any transfer to happen.
This season De Jong has mostly been appearing on the bench more than starting the games with Xavi preferring to use other midfield personnel available to him.
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Maybe it is a tactic being used by the club to send a message to the Dutchman, as a player of his ilk does not deserve to sit on the bench as often as he has done this season.
A move to the Premier League does not look completely off looking at the current situation and De Jong could be tempted to come to Anfield and join his national team captain Virgil van Dijk.
