Dutch star reveals which club £120m Man Utd, City linked duo want to join
Jasper Cillessen believes Ajax duo Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt would like to play for Barcelona, while stating he has no intention of leaving the club.
The Netherlands international is hopeful his compatriots will make the move from the Amsterdam side and join him at Camp Nou.
However, Barcelona face stiff competition. Manchester City have been hot in pursuit of midfielder De Jong, and have been linked with a £71m move.
Meanwhile, De Ligt has been subject of £50m interest from clubs such as Manchester United, AC Milan and Roma.
Now online outlet Goal are reporting Barca have turned their attention to De Jong, and with Cillissen saying that he’s spoken to De Ligt about a possible move, it appears both players are viable options for the Catalan side.
“Everybody in the national team would like to play for Barcelona because it’s one of the best teams in the world,” the Dutch goalkeeper told Sport.
“I didn’t play with De Jong at Ajax, but I did play with De Ligt for a few weeks, because he came up to the first team in the summer of 2016. I was able to work with him that pre-season, before coming to Barca. He’s a player with a lot of quality and is only 19.
“He’s physical, strong, mentally strong, especially if you see the [Netherlands] game against Germany. In the first half he didn’t go so well, but he recovered in the second half, he was excellent in the second half. He was also excellent against Bayern Munich in the Champions League for Ajax.
“I spoke with him about [Barcelona], he has the level, but he’s still 19 years old … I don’t know because [Marc] Overmars is in charge at Ajax, so I don’t know what he wants. I also read he’s not going anywhere [in January].”
Marc-Andre ter Stegen is Barcelona’s number one keeper at Barca but despite having to fight to get game-time Cillessen stated that he hopes to remain at Barca for the foreseeable future.
“What I want is to play at the highest level possible,” he said. “But there was nothing firm. I’ve not had any concrete offers on the table and, on top of that, Barca told me they didn’t want to lose me.
“What the club said made me feel valued. It was important for me that they showed that confidence in me.
“We didn’t speak with any [other] club in a concrete way, there was nothing solid.”
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