{"id":74341,"date":"2026-08-22T21:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T21:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/74341\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T21:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T21:17:11","slug":"journalist-denies-speculation-linking-barcelona-midfield-star-to-a-late-juventus-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/74341\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalist denies speculation linking Barcelona midfield star to a late Juventus move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barcelona\u2019s massive coup to sign Spain\u2019s captain Rodri has changed the entire equation within the squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Catalans, at least on paper, now possess one of the strongest midfields in all of Europe, with the trifecta of Rodri, Pedri and Frenkie de Jong, complimented by more attacking midfielders such as Gavi, Fermin Lopez and Dani Olmo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Rodri\u2019s arrival is set to dampen De Jong\u2019s role in the team, which is perhaps why the Dutchman was <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/barcelona-midfielder-could-receive-late-transfer-offer-as-role-shrinks-juventus-among-clubs-interested\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">shockingly linked with a late move to Juventus<\/a> recently.<\/p>\n<p>De Jong not moving to Juventus<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, those rumours have been put to bed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ar7hf4ZFuoQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Matteo Moretto<\/a>, who has clarified that De Jong is not going anywhere this summer, let alone Juventus.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/netherlands-v-morocco-round-of-32-fifa-world-cup-2026-2-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Frenkie de Jong of Netherlands\" class=\"wp-image-204153\"  \/>Frenkie de Jong is out with an injury. (Photo by Carl Recine\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During his livestream, the journalist was asked whether there is any meat to speculation linking De Jong with a shock move to Juventus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In response, Moretto stated there is nothing of substance in those speculation, especially with the player currently on the sidelines due to a long-term injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He went on to rule out The Dutchman\u2019s exit this summer, adding that a move to Juventus is not a possibility at all.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s in store for De Jong this season?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Rodri coming in, it\u2019s only natural to believe that coach Hansi Flick will opt for the duo of Rodri and Pedri in the middle of the park, with either Olmo or Fermin occupying the number ten spot.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784471890_89_netherlands-v-morocco-round-of-32-fifa-world-cup-2026-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Frenkie de Jong of Netherlands\" class=\"wp-image-204155\"  \/>Can de Jong survive in the new look Barcelona midfield? (Photo by David Ramos\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even when De Jong does come back from injury, the Dutchman is unlikely to start ahead of either Rodri or Pedri except on occasions where Flick decides to rotate his squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In that case, De Jong could start alongside either of these two midfielders. However, it will be interesting to see if the Dutchman could make a case for being more of an attacking midfielder when he gets back to full form.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">De Jong, after all, is a crafty individual who can do a lot of damage if he receives support from defensive midfielders. Keeping that in mind, him making a case for being included in the number ten is a possibility that shouldn\u2019t be ruled out just yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona\u2019s massive coup to sign Spain\u2019s captain Rodri has changed the entire equation within the squad. The Catalans,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,223,851,1238],"class_list":["post-74341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-frenkie-de-jong","tag-juventus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}