De Boer: Lionel Messi will fall in love with Frenkie de Jong
The former Barca player, working at Ajax, hailed the new signing who has 'Barca DNA'
Ronald de Boer, former Barcelona footballer and current member of Ajax's youth team staff, praised Frenkie de Jong in an interview with Cadena SER and spoke about what his future role will be at FC Barcelona.
De Boer, who is an Ajax ambassador, believes the young Dutchman will adapt easily to Barcelona's game given the similarities in the way both clubs play. "De Jong has Ajax DNA which is nearly the same as Barcelona DNA, he is intelligent, he always has good ideas, he never plays without thinking. Messi will fall in love with De Jong."
De Boer is delighted that the player has chosen a place to play where they "keep playing football with the spirit of Cruyff" in a city impregnated with the ideas of Guardiola and Renus Michels, idealists when it comes to positional play. "For me he is more a Barca player than a PSG player, he will fit them perfectly."
De Boer praised some of De Jong's qualities. "He's a different player and is not afraid of dribbling and waiting for the opportune moment to give the ball He will have Busquets as a professor to learn from in the first year and after that Busi can hand the role over to De Jong. He can also play in the Xavi and Iniesta position but the No 6 is his best role."
One of his best qualities, De Boer explained, is to attract rivals in with the ball to free up his team-mates, before passing to them in space. Tht's why Erik ten Hag used De Jong as a 'false centre-back', giving more space up front to exploit this quality.
