Barcelona Boss Koeman Calls Liverpool’s Wijnaldum “Option for the Future”

It’s Gini Wijnaldum’s birthday today, and thoughtful man that he is, former Netherlands manager and current Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman went out and got him—and all the rest of us—a fresh round of transfer rumours.

Wijnaldum was linked with a move to the Catalan club over the summer, but in the end the transfer chatter amounted to nothing. His Liverpool contract expires at this season, though, and he could sign a pre-contract in January.

“He’s very good, but he’s playing for Liverpool,” Koeman told Sport this week when asked about those summer rumours and Barcelona’s failure to sign Wijnaldum. “He may be an option for the future, but I can’t say more.”

So. Wijnaldum, who can sign a pre-contract in January, may be an option for the future. But Koeman can’t say more. It’s almost impossible not to read a great deal into that kind of a statement, and already a lot of outlets are.

And with no signs of movement on a new Liverpool deal since the season started, the reality is that there’s almost no chance the player—who was 29 until he turned 30 today—will still be at Anfield this time next year.

Whether he ends up at Barcelona or elsewhere is harder to say at this point, but Koeman’s comments do seem to hint at something being in the works, and we could know where Wijnaldum’s future lies in as little as two months.