How Ajax Bought Frenkie De Jong For Just €1 In 'Bargain Of The Decade' With Manchester United Move 'Close'
United will be paying a lot more than €1 to secure de Jong's services.
Ajax managed to sign Frenkie de Jong for just €1 back in 2015 and there's a legitimate case for it to be called the best bargain of all time.
The Dutch giants have always been a hotbed for young, exciting talent and none have captured that in recent memory more than de Jong.
It's amazing to think Ajax secured his services from Willem II as an 18-year-old for the equivalent of a packet of sweets at the shops.
Alright, it took a little bit more than that but it's still an insane piece of business from their point of view.
Ajax agreed to loan a few players to Willem II and settled on giving them a percentage of any future fee for de Jong, after failing to agree terms on an €800,000 deal.
In 2019, the midfielder would swap Amsterdam for Catalonia and join Barcelona for a whopping €75 million.
That netted Willem II a cool €7.5 million. Still a very small sum considering the talent de Jong has.
The 25-year-old could be on the move again this summer, this time making a shock switch to the Premier League with Manchester United.
Gerard Romero reported on Wednesday evening that an €80 million transfer is '95 per cent confirmed' with the Blaugrana still facing financial issues.
It's believed they need to sell one major player before bringing in any reinforcements of their own.
If de Jong moves to Old Trafford, he'll be reunited with former Ajax manager Erik ten Hag.
United confirmed ten Hag as their new manager last month and he'll take over in the summer.
Under ten Hag at the Amsterdam Arena, de Jong won the Eredivisie and reached the 2019 Champions League semi-finals, knocking out Real Madrid and Juventus on the way.
Donny van de Beek, a former teammate of de Jong's, is also a United player and spending the rest of the campaign on loan at Everton.
United are expected to go for a midfielder, with Nemanja Matic already confirming his departure at the end of this season and Paul Pogba unlikely to sign a new contract.
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Manchester United, Barcelona, Ajax, Frenkie De Jong
Daniel Marland