Manchester City had explored signing Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong after learning about Rodri’s desire to leave the Premier League side.
The 30-year-old Spain international was in his final year of contract at the Etihad. The Citizens wanted to offer him an extension while he wanted to return to his country.
Rodri came close to securing a move to Real Madrid before completing a move to Barca on August 18th. With that, he ended his nine-year spell at Manchester City.
The midfielder was instrumental for the English club, who wanted to replace him with De Jong in the summer window.
Why Manchester City didn’t sign Barca star
On August 24th, Sport Witness covered a report from Spain explaining that Manchester City showed a lot of interest in Frenkie de Jong.
Catalan newspaper Sport had covered this report, and Catalunya Ràdio‘s podcast, Barça Reservat, after relaying it, now shares their own take.
Enzo Maresca’s side had signed Elliott Anderson from Nottingham Forest for €135m in July.
Towards the end of the window, they spent €95m to sign Ayyoub Bouaddi on August 26th. On deadline day, Manchester City splashed a club-record fee of €145m to sign Enzo Fernández from Chelsea.
Prior to the duo’s arrival, Catalunya Ràdio states the English club explored the possibility of signing the 29-year-old. Barcelona, led by their sporting director, were open to letting the Netherlands international leave.
Manchester City had explored the conditions to sign De Jong and asked about his medical records.
He suffered a knee injury while at the World Cup and has been on the sidelines since then. After going through the medical report, they ‘ultimately rejected his signing’.
| Statistic | Frenkie de Jong | Rodri |
|---|---|---|
| Appearances | 389 | 436 |
| Minutes played | 28,609 | 32,647 |
| Goals | 25 | 33 |
| Assists | 39 | 37 |
| Goals and assists | 64 | 70 |
| Goals per 90 minutes | 0.08 | 0.09 |
| Assists per 90 minutes | 0.12 | 0.10 |
| Goals and assists per 90 minutes | 0.20 | 0.19 |
| League appearances | 261 | 299 |
| League goals | 19 | 27 |
| League assists | 30 | 26 |
| Senior first-team club matches only, including domestic cups, European competitions, Super Cups and Club World Cups. Excludes Jong Ajax, Villarreal B, youth matches, internationals and friendlies. Per-90 figures calculated from total minutes and rounded to two decimal places. Figures checked on 9 October 2026. |
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De Jong cheaper than 3 Manchester City signings
A fresh report from Sport relays this and covers the English club spending around €400m on three midfielders.
Transfermarkt value Frenkie de Jong at €25m and it was €35m in August. Hansi Flick’s side would have sold him for a fee slightly higher than that. However, Manchester City decided to bet on ‘younger and more expensive players’.
Since March 2024, the Dutchman missed 431 days [and counting] because of injuries. He turned 29 years of age in May and doesn’t have more years ahead of him when compared to the Citizens’ three midfield signings.
Taking his age and medical history into account, Manchester City took a logical step to bet on younger and more expensive players instead of signing De Jong.
