Barcelona are set to ask Frenkie de Jong to take another wage cut as they look to free up funds to re-sign Lionel Messi.
Mirror Football exclusively revealed last month that Messi was set to leave PSG when his contract expires at the end of the season and Barcelona are keen to bring him back. The club's vice-president Rafa Yuste recently revealed they have already made contact with Messi's entourage and are hopeful he will return to Barcelona.
"Leo and his family know the affection we have for them," Yuste said. "I participated in the [contract] negotiations that in the end did not come to fruition unfortunately and I still have that thorn in my side. Of course I would love to see him return and I am sure that many fans share my feeling.
"I believe beautiful stories in life have to have happy endings and that's why we are in contact with Messi, of course. When you're in love with a person, you lose contact but you want to continue being in love and I think Leo is also in love with Barca and the city of Barcelona. I think fate will make it possible. Let's see if we can have Leo back in Barcelona."
However, Barcelona desperately need to cut costs if they are to have any hope of re-signing Messi, with La Liga president Javier Tebas warning they need to save around €200m (£176m) before they can make any new signings. "At this time, it looks complicated to me," he told RMC Sport when asked about the prospect of Messi rejoining Barcelona.
"There is still time, but there will have to be a departure of players and a reduction in the wage bill. They will have to be to be able to register Messi. And then there is a piece of information that we don't know, which is Messi's salary. There are still many variables.
"Barca is not like PSG, which has a gas and money tap which allows them to have such a big salary. You must reduce the wage bill to be able to sign players. It's like the subway, let them out so they can get in. And people still have to get out of the subway."
According to a report from Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo, one of the ways Barcelona are hoping to cut costs is by asking some of their players to take salary cuts. The likes of De Jong, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba all took pay cuts to help the club during the pandemic the report claims Barcelona want De Jong to take another one along with goalkeeper Marc Andre Ter Stegen.
It remains to be seen whether the Duchman will accept the proposal and the news will certainly be of interest to Manchester United, who came close to signing De Jong last summer. He was one of Erik Ten Hag's top targets and United remain interested in signing the midfielder.
