Rumour Mongering: Ajax Star Wanted By Barcelona, PSG Instead Talks Up LIverpool

Virgil Van Dijk, snatched from under Manchester City’s nose. Alisson Becker, prised from Real Madrid’s clammy grasp. Liverpool’s return to the European elite under Jürgen Klopp has been matched only by a regained swagger on the transfer market. If the Normal One and the swashbuckling Michael Edwards want a player, they are finding ways to get them.

After sweeping to the last year’s Champions League final as arguably the most entertaining team on the continent before proceeding to defiantly stand toe-to-toe with a historically-great City side up this season, no longer are the Reds destined to come up second-best in the battle for the best talent.

It is a development that makes the idea of one of said talents rejecting the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich to come to Anfield—OK, still a bit far-fetched, but not by much.

For your consideration, heart-racing quotes attributed to wunderkind de jour, Frenkie de Jong. Who is the 21-year old Ajax starlet you ask? Imagine a player equal parts Sergio Busquets and Xabi Alonso except with the ability to shoulder feint, change pace and leggily stride their way through an unending procession of challenges.

£75 million is said to be the asking price, a familiar number to any Red fan and an amount Sir Edward has not shied away from in the very recent past.

De Jong—as one may have surmised from that singular way they spell their surnames—is Dutch.

Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

You know who else is Dutch? Liverpool stalwart and Netherlands international, Gini Wijnaldum, owner of the world’s winningest smile. Another Red hailing from Holland is one Virgil Van Dijk, someone with leadership qualities so ingrained, he’d almost certainly get be the CEO of multinational company if he wasn’t playing football.

Which means that when the Liverpool center back speaks to young, impressionable players like De Jong about something, they usually tend to listen:

“He is always speaking to me about [the Anfield atmosphere],” the 21-year-old said of Van Dijk in a recent interview. “It’s something every player in the world would want to experience.”

“It is something that every player in the world would want to experience.”

Frenkie de Jong is a player. By that logic, he should want to experience as much of Anfield as possible, preferably for at least the 25 home fixtures that make up a league season and a march to the Champions League final.

So that’s De Jong to Liverpool confirmed then; glad that’s sorted.