At Barcelona’s traditional season-opening Joan Gamper friendly back in early August, Frenkie de Jong was jeered by some fans as the team for 2024-25 was presented.
On Tuesday night against Young Boys in the Champions League, he made his first appearance of the new campaign, marking an important step in what has been a difficult recovery from injury.
Waiting on the sidelines, the 27-year-old Dutchman watched as Lamine Yamal wiped sweat from his face in the 75th minute. The winger didn’t realise he was being substituted and a Young Boys player had to alert him to what was going on. The crowd realised too.
As De Jong finally stepped onto the pitch, there was applause from the Barca stands. It was not a standing ovation like the one his fellow substitute Ansu Fati received minutes earlier, but it was still a warm welcome back.
“The fans applauded me, thank you for that, it was a happy night,” De Jong told Spanish broadcaster Movistar after the 5-0 win (he came on at 4-0). “I didn’t expect anything, you never know. But I’m very happy for the way people treat me. It’s been a long time, a hard process, and I’ve had a hard time.”
De Jong suffered an ankle injury back in April — which ruled him out of the rest of last season as well as the Netherlands’ campaign at the European Championship. But by early September still no concrete return date was set, and there were worries over De Jong still feeling pain in the area.
In all this time, many rumours surfaced. Some of them really annoyed the player, who has been upset with what has been leaked about him around the club for some time now — dating back to a tense summer transfer window of 2022, when Barca wanted to sell him to Manchester United.
The media reports that have hurt him most are those that featured claims about his salary, as well as repeating incorrect rumours that, although the club’s doctors recommended him to have an operation to solve his ankle discomfort, he did not want to.
He spoke about all this earlier this week in an interview on Barca’s media platforms.
“They said a lot of things about me, that I don’t want to have surgery and that they pay me a lot of money. Very high figures, like 37 million and it’s very, very far from that,” he said.
“I understand people who are frustrated because they think I’m getting paid a lot of money, they say he has to have surgery, but he doesn’t want it and he’s on holiday, he’s not training. But it’s not true.
Frenkie De Jong: ❝Mentally it’s a tough process.❞ pic.twitter.com/wGrwotSD9J
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) September 29, 2024
“We agreed with the doctors that not having surgery would be the best option. I don’t understand where these things come from. I understand that people are frustrated because they didn’t have all the information, because I have remained silent.”
The situation had created a breeding ground. De Jong might well have felt nervous about his reception when finally coming back.
With Barca already well in control on Tuesday night, Hansi Flick took advantage to bring on De Jong with about 15 minutes left. It was a game that was already not very demanding and so the Dutchman could have some comfortable minutes to get back into the swing of things on the pitch.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Flick said it was “an important step” for him to “be back with the team”
The German added: “He ran too much in my opinion but it was good for him to familiarise himself with the pressure the opposition were putting on him.
“Before his injury he was one of the most important players and we want to get him back. We have to help him and support him. We know he needs time and we are going to give it to him. He puts in a lot of effort and is very professional. These are things I value a lot and I think he deserves our patience.”
In his time on the pitch, De Jong had 22 touches, made 19 passes and had a passing accuracy of 89 per cent. You can’t really take too much away from a player’s performance in such a short spell in a game that was already won — even less so one coming back from injury. But it did raise some questions.
Flick deployed De Jong as an advanced midfielder from the bench, keeping Marc Casado on as a defensive pivot. Casado, despite not being Flick’s first choice at the start of the season — the 17-year-old Marc Bernal was preferred, before his cruciate knee ligament injury — has impressed in the role.
Casado, 21, has in fact delivered wherever Flick has put him in midfield so far this season, showing valuable versatility having now been given a run in the first team. With each game he seems more reliable and he deserves to be in the starting line-up. Against Monaco he was Barca’s best player and in the second Champions League game of the season last night he was also at a high level.
With De Jong back, the big question is whether the Catalan will now, progressively, play a lesser role — or whether Flick will combine the pair in a double pivot in midfield. This is how Casado used to play with Bernal at Barcelona Atletic, the club’s reserve team that currently plays on Spain’s third tier.
However, another player who is close to returning is Gavi. Gavi used to play in that role with De Jong. And he is certainly an important player for the team.
Flick sees De Jong primarily as a holding midfielder, but De Jong has never really convinced as a sole pivot at Barca, and his best moments came with Sergio Busquets (who left in summer 2023) in the position alongside him. Everything seems to indicate that he will be accompanied, although perhaps Flick’s overall style of play is better suited to him than Xavi’s.
As a more advanced player, it will be difficult for De Jong to get consistent minutes ahead of Pedri, Dani Olmo or Gavi, plus there is Fermin Lopez and Pablo Torre.
For now, with De Jong having taken just an early (but important) step back towards full match fitness, the most likely scenario is that Casado will continue to be Barca’s holding midfielder and the Dutchman will keep racking up the minutes. Conclusions will come later. Casado will have to be tested against more demanding opponents like Bayern Munich and Real Madrid — Barca face both later this month. Then it will become clear which players Flick has for the big games.
So far, the German coach has already been able to bring out the best version of many players, including Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski, whose fine goalscoring form continued with a double that took him to nine goals from 10 games in all competitions this term.
Fans will be hoping he can do the same with De Jong.
(Top photo: Daniela Porcelli/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
