Barcelona ready to swap Miralem Pjanic for Dutch striker

There’s nothing quite like deadline day of the summer transfer window, and the latest news from ESPN stands as evidence for the same. The report says that Barcelona are open to exchanging Miralem Pjanic for Sevilla’s Luuk de Jong.

Barça have been unable to find a way out for Pjanic during this window as they had planned to, and thus, could pursue this as their way out. While it helps them offload a heavy earner, it also brings in a central striker, as has been requested by Ronald Koeman multiple times in the past month.

The team lost their primary goal-scoring source in Lionel Messi when he departed for Paris Saint-Germain and could reportedly transfer out Antoine Griezmann to Atletico Madrid during the dying hours of the window.

De Jong signed for Sevilla in the summer of 2019 and has not even been able to live up to his €12.5 million price tag. With a grand total of ten goals spread across 69 league appearances, he has now been demoted to third-choice after the arrival of Rafa Mir from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Koeman has worked with LdJ in the past with the Netherlands national team, and their chemistry could work for Barcelona. The Dutch manager pushed for the signing for his compatriot a couple of weeks ago and could finally be getting his man.