Frenkie de Jong has been named in the Barcelona squad for their pre-season tour in the United States amid the rumours surrounding his potential move to Manchester United.
The 25-year-old will travel with his Barca teammates to Miami to face Phil Neville's Inter Miami on Tuesday in their first friendly of the summer. Xavi Hernandez's side then take on Real Madrid in Nevada next Sunday, before playing Juventus and New York Red Bulls to wrap up their time in the States.
He has been selected in the Barca squad alongside new signings Andreas Christiansen, Raphinha and Frank Kessie, while Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang and Memphis Depay are also among the travelling contingent. Robert Lewandowski is closing in on a move to the Catalan giants and is expected to be unveiled in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the saga is still continuing over De Jong's move to United. With an agreement finally reached between United and Barca, the player is faced with Camp Nou exile if he fails to consent to the Premier League switch, which would necessitate him leaving his "dream" club.
The Netherlands international is disgusted by the way he has been treated by Blaugrana chiefs - and it is not hard to see why. Talks between Barcelona and the Red Devils begin on June 1 as Ten Hag, newly installed in the latter dugout, sought a marquee midfield addition.
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Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard departed this summer at the expiry of their contracts, so the need for recruitment in the centre of the park was pressing. Who better for Ten Hag to target than De Jong, who excelled under him at Ajax - winning the league-cup double in the 2018/19 season - and has continued to perform week in, week out during his three years in Spain.
Initially, the two clubs were at an impasse over the transfer fee and United saw a bid of £54million plus add-ons turned down in mid-June. Barcelona were understandably loath to make a loss on De Jong, having stumped up £65million to sign him from the Amsterdam club, so it was clear the Red Devils would need to up their bid.
At the time, there were reports the player had cleared his locker at Barcelona, suggesting the transfer was edging closer to completion. However, such speculation could hardly have been further from the truth. De Jong is understood to be happy in Spain and wants to stay at Barcelona this summer.
