Manchester United have been dealt a major blow in their pursuit of FC Barcelona and Netherlands midfielder, Frenkie de Jong.
For the entirety of the 2022 summer transfer window, Manchester United have been linked with Frenkie de Jong.
However, the Red Devils do not appear to be close to agreeing a deal for the midfielder.
On Saturday, FC Barcelona released their squad list for the club’s pre-season tour of the US, which included De Jong.
Now, on Sunday, Spanish outlet Sport have ran a report which, if true, kills any hope United have of landing De Jong.
According to Sport, De Jong is willing to depart Barcelona, but only if the chance to join Bayern Munich presented itself.
It is not known if Bayern Munich have any plans to sound out a new midfielder, but following Robert Lewandowski’s shock move to Barcelona, which went against the Bavarians’ wishes, Bayern have some cash to play with and could use it to bring in a quality midfielder whilst also weakening a European rival.
Who will Manchester United sign instead?
Should a deal for De Jong indeed fail to materialise, you would assume that United will still need to bring in at least one more central midfielder this summer.
They have secured the services of Christian Eriksen, but how effective he would be in a deep-lying playmaker role next to someone like Fred remains to be seen.
One player supposedly of interest to Man United is PSV’s Ibrahim Sangare.
Reports emerged on Saturday that talks between the Red Devils and the Dutch outfit are progressing for the midfielder, with a fee of €35-40m touted.