"Pep Segura cried when Frenkie de Jong signed for Barça"
The ex-sporting director was emotional when the deal was finally concluded
Hasan Cetinkaya, one of Frenkie de Jong's agents, has revealed some of the details about the Dutchman's signing for FC Barcelona this summer -- saying that the Catalan club's former sporting director Pep Segura even cried when the deal was done.
De Jong agreed to join Barca from Ajax in January for 75 million euros, with the transfer eventually going through at the end of last season.
In an interview with 'Aftonbladet', Cetinkaya remembers how Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu played a key role in pushing the deal over the line.
He speaks of the first meeting with Ajax sporting director Marc Overmars and CEO Edwin van der Sar, when they planned to sell De Jong for around 50 million euros.
"I said to them: 'We shouldn't sell him for 50m, we will sell him for 100m," the agent said. "We won't only set a record for a Dutch club, but also for a Dutch player.' And all of a sudden there was a great atmosphere in the room.
"PSG, Manchester City and Juventus did nearly everything to sign Frenkie. But Barcelona had always been the first option, their style of football, their DNA.
"Barça were under huge pressure to get a deal done. I'd never seen anything like it. They were so relieved when they got it done that sporting director Pep Segura began to cry when the documents were signed.
"When I saw that, I got a little emotional, too, and a tear fell. It's very rare for me to cry. There was a hug, champagne and later, Ali (Dursun, De Jong's other agent), Frenkie and all his family went to a really good restaurant in the mountains in Barcelona. We drunk the best wine in Spain, ate a fantastic steak and everyone was laughing and happy."
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