The advice Bartomeu gave De Jong before midfielder signed for Barça
Bartomeu convinced him to sign but told him to pick Man City if not Barça
Frenkie de Jong's signing for Barcelona was not straight forward. His performances for Ajax had drawn the attention of many clubs and he had a long list of possible suitors once he'd decided to leave in 2019.
Finally, after a tug-of-war between his agent and the club, De Jong chose Barça. After his initial response of 'no' had been communicated to Barça's president at the time, Josep Maria Bartomeu, he decided to travel to Amsterdam himself to try and change the player's mind.
One of the journalists best informed on the process was Oriol Domenech, who on Tuesday on Onze gave more information about the meeting between Bartomeu and De Jong.
Bartomeu y De Jong, en la presentación del futbolista
| EFE"Bartomeu sold De Jong what he wanted to hear: that he will be a key player at the club for the next decade, that he would play for him. He spoke ill of PSG and Man City, saying they were clubs without a soul, any history or fans," Domenech said.
"Finally, he told him that he had to come to Barça come what may, but that if he really did want to, he should go with the best coach in the world, which was Pep Guardiola, but no to PSG."
On the same show, Domenech confirmed De Jong's first decision was to join Man City's project under Guardiola, not PSG as had been speculated at the time.
The midfielder had even travelled to Manchester and spent a morning with Guardiola and visiting the training complex with Txiki Berigistain, but in the end Bartomeu's Amsterdam trip tipped the balance.
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