Frenkie de Jong's Strong Response to Journalist Gerard Romero
Frenkie de Jong has stepped out of the treatment room and straight into a media storm, using a new club interview to launch a fierce rebuttal of journalist Gerard Romero’s reporting.
The Barcelona midfielder, currently sidelined with a knee injury, did not hide his frustration. He named Romero directly and accused him of spreading “false” stories that have left him “angry and irritated.”
The flashpoint is a claim that De Jong refused to play for Barça in a Champions League match against Atletico last season. The Dutchman dismissed that version in blunt terms.
“For example, Gerard Romero. He said, and he started all of this, that I refused to play against Atletico in the Champions League last year. That’s false. It’s false. It’s simply not true,” De Jong told the club’s media.
He then doubled down, tying his response to his long-stated ambition at Camp Nou.
“As I said, my dream is to play for Barca, especially in important Champions League matches. Of course I want to play. I don’t understand how you can say that I refused to play. And obviously, if people get angry and if that’s the only information they have, I understand. That’s why I’m explaining.”
The midfielder didn’t stop at that single allegation. He went through a series of stories that have circulated around his name and knocked each one down.
“Then he said that my relationship with the coach is very bad, which is completely false. I have a very good relationship with the coach. I talk to him a lot. You can ask him about all of this. It’s completely false.
“They’ve also said that my relationship with the club is bad, which is also not true, because I talk a lot with people at the club, with the directors and so on. Then they said I’m being punished. That was Gerard Romero again, and I want to mention it because I think he’s already told more lies in the past.”
At that point, De Jong drew a clear line in the sand. The days of letting things slide, he suggested, are over.
“But I’m not going to let it slide anymore, because he needs to understand that if he puts things out that aren’t true, I’m going to call him out on it.”
Behind the sharp words sits a player trying to clear his head while he works his way back to fitness. De Jong admitted he wanted to “get that anger off his chest” so he can concentrate fully on his recovery and is doing everything he can to return to the pitch as quickly as possible.
