Guardiola called De Jong before his transfer to Barcelona, the Dutchman says

The successful transfer of Frenkie de Jong was a huge victory for Barcelona in the transfer market. Snatching up a generational midfield talent and a youngster dubbed to lead the revolution in the near future set the Catalans up for the next decade.

However, as is the case with most things in football, the Dutchman’s arrival was not exactly a smooth deal. Since he came with a reputation, it doesn’t surprise that De Jong was on the radar of multiple European giants, all of whom were in the queue for his signature.

One of those clubs were also Manchester City and since Pep Guardiola is their coach, that statement makes complete sense. After all, the Catalan gaffer is a huge fan of versatile, technical and hard-working midfielders and there is no doubt he would indeed put De Jong to good use back at the Etihad.

But, as fate would have it, Barcelona were the ones to win the race for his signature and his future now lies at the Camp Nou. De Jong also recently revealed that upon the realisation that the Blaugrana had won the battle, Guardiola called the Dutchman to congratulate him on the move.

The midfielder noted, as relayed by Tv3 and Oriol Domènech: “Before my signing for Barcelona was made official, Pep Guardiola called me. He said in a serious, but kind of joking tone, that he was happy for me and congratulated me.”

Of course, there’s no doubt Guardiola would’ve preferred to see De Jong at Man City but being a big Barcelona fan deep down, it’s likely he truly was happy for the Dutchman.

After all, seeing a player land his dream move is always touching and that’s exactly what happened here. Now it’s up to the midfielder to prove his worth and warrant all the praise he’s been getting since his arrival.

Luckily for both him and his current club, De Jong has been performing admirably and is enjoying his best run in Catalonia to date.

Long may that continue.