From identity crisis to captain: How Frenkie de Jong became the leader Barcelona needed | OneFootball

Being Frenkie de Jong at FC Barcelona has not been easy. For a long time, his story has lived in a strange in-between.

Everyone could see the talent: the gliding through pressure, the calm turns, the way he seemed to carry an extra second in his pocket, but the volatile situation at the club kept asking him for different versions.

Some days he was an interior, some days he was the pivot and some days he was a box crasher. He quickly went from the future of the club to an emergency fix to a luxury asset to a financial problem to a transfer solution in hardly half a decade at the club.

Now, in January 2026, something shifts. Frenkie does not become Barcelona’s leader in one cinematic moment. He becomes it in small increments, in the small choices that he makes that only look small until you realise the whole team is following them.

When Barcelona’s rhythm breaks, De Jong is trying to stitch it back together. When the night turns sour, like it did in Reale Arena, he is the one standing in front of it.

Slowly, yet surely, he is emerging as the leader Barcelona always wanted him to be.

The identity crisis years

If there is one phrase that can best encapsulate De Jong’s former years at Barcelona, it is identity crisis.

The club signed the Dutchman because he looked like a future backbone, a modern midfielder with an old-school gift of control, tempo and a lack of panic. In many ways, they thought they were signing their successor to Sergio Busquets.

But Barcelona in the post-MSN years was in crisis and did not offer clean pathways for anyone.

It represented an institution plagued by financial chaos, tactical upheaval and a less-than-competent playing squad that had its cracks papered over by the ever-brilliant Lionel Messi.

It also had a largely fickle fanbase not used to the lows after years of tasting success, that could fall in love and turn on a player in the same half of a game.

So De Jong spent years trying to be understood. When he played well, he was the solution. When he struggled, he was not the right profile.

The summer of 2022 was a difficult one for Frenkie. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

When the club needed money, he was an expendable asset. When the club needed financial stability, he was the one who earned more than he deserved. In concise terms, he was never the fan favourite.

In the summer of 2022, he became the face of a transfer saga he never wanted to star in. His wage structure became public property, and reports about £17 million in deferred wages holding up a Manchester United deal appeared all over the media.

It is the kind of situation that could push any normal player to the brink of an exit and leave in search of pastures new.

De Jong, however, is different. He stays. He is willing to fight it out with the Blaugrana fanbase who do not treat him like one of their own. He shows character.

The low point that rewires you

If the transfer saga with Manchester United was not enough of a low point for Frenkie, the next impostor shows up: injuries. In April 2024, Barcelona confirmed that the Dutchman was suffering from a right ankle sprain.

It is the sort of nagging injury that just does not go away. It keeps returning, asking the midfielder new questions: can you trust your body, can you throw yourself into tackles, can you return to your former self?

Frenkie later admitted that he had doubts whether his ankle would ever heal completely, as it took its own sweet time before the 28-year-old could return to the pitch.

The injury also saw him miss the 2024 Euros for the Netherlands, where, unlike Barcelona, he was adored and celebrated.

A player like De Jong, much like his midfield partner Pedri, is built on flow. Injuries raised doubts on whether he would ever be at the level Barcelona need again, and, coupled with Marc Casado’s emergence, it seemed to be the end of the road for Frenkie in a Blaugrana jersey.

The phoenix in him does not give up, though. He rose from the ashes in early 2025, regaining his spot in midfield under Hansi Flick and has not looked back since.

Captaincy is not a gift, it is a mirror

Once the old guard, like Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba and Sergi Roberto, left the club, Barcelona needed to identify a new set of captains, and De Jong was one among them. The armband does not guarantee leadership. It demands it.

Because, at Barcelona, leadership is not just about shouting and being the loudest. It is about managing the chaos on the pitch. It is about being the player teammates look for when under pressure.

Leading by example. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

It is about giving teammates the confidence that everything is under control. With every passing game, Frenkie started growing into this role, whether or not he was wearing the armband.

After months of consistent performances, in October 2025, Barcelona announced that De Jong had extended his contract until 2029.

It may have been a long-drawn contract negotiation, but the message was clear from Hansi Flick: the Dutchman is a long-term pillar around whom this new project is being built.

For Frenkie, it was well deserved.

Authority earned, not given

Barcelona’s run into mid-January has been relentless. The loss at Real Sociedad ended an 11-game winning streak in all competitions. During this sequence of games, Frenkie showed everyone how you can become a leader in a winning team by being indispensable.

His presence is not just about his passes or carries, but the comfort that he gives the rest of the team. Barcelona’s attackers can take risks further forward knowing that they have a safety net behind them.

The defenders are able to hold a higher line because Frenkie’s intelligent positioning tends to cut transitions before they begin.

Leadership at a club like Barcelona is often about making the difficult things look simple.

The Pedri connection: when the metronome meets the artist

For Barcelona, midfield partnerships have often defied eras. Frenkie and Pedri are turning into one such partnership.

Pedri plays like someone sketching ideas at full speed, always seeing the next passing angle before anyone else in the stadium does. As good as an artist is, he needs structure. This is where De Jong comes in.

With Frenkie in form, Pedri does not have to drop into the same deep pockets to rescue the build-up every two minutes. He can stay closer to the areas that matter: the half-spaces, the pockets between the lines and the zones where a single touch can turn a sequence into a chance.

Thriving together. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

De Jong, meanwhile, acts as the stabiliser behind him. The carrier who breaks the first wave of pressure and the reset button when an attacking sequence collapses.

It is not a double pivot in the conventional sense. It is a relationship. Frenkie absorbs the chaos so that Pedri can thrive inside it. It has been magical for Hansi Flick.

A captain’s night in Jeddah

Then comes the Spanish Super Cup final in Jeddah. Barcelona win 3-2 in an entertaining El Clasico encounter, with Raphinha scoring twice and Lewandowski adding another, sealing their 16th Spanish Super Cup title.

What stands out on that night, among other moments, is De Jong’s incredible second-half display. The Dutchman played like a man possessed, winning every second ball and controlling the game like he was playing with a set of training cones.

Despite the fact that he got a red card late on for a foul on Kylian Mbappe, his performance before that is on every Barcelona fan’s mind.

This was Frenkie showing that leadership is not always clean. Sometimes it is okay to get emotional. Sometimes it is okay to take a hit for the team if it puts them in a better position to win the game at the end of it.

Barcelona held on with ten men. They did not break. Joan Garcia made key saves. The trophy arrived.

As for Frenkie, he is not watching the biggest nights from the periphery anymore. He is living in them and wearing the armband on most occasions.

Leadership in defeat

And then, on January 18, Barcelona lost 2-1 away to Real Sociedad in a match that felt like a cruel experiment.

It is a night on which the team created so many chances but were kept at bay by a combination of excellent goalkeeping from Alex Remiro, the woodwork and controversial refereeing from Gil Manzano.

It is one of those games where the performance is strong enough to deserve something, but the scoreboard simply does not agree.

After the game, De Jong comes out to face the media head on, and speaks like a captain who understands what matters. He praises Remiro’s night, admits Barcelona should have been more clinical and does not hide from the loss.

Then he goes further, and this is where the leader arc becomes visible to the public eye. He criticises referee Gil Manzano’s attitude, saying he could not even speak to him as captain and questions the logic behind Lamine Yamal’s goal being ruled out for offside.

You can agree or disagree with De Jong’s complaint, but the key here is what it represents. The Dutchman is no longer taking responsibility for just his performances. He is taking responsibility for the entire team.

Why Barcelona need this Frenkie

De Jong – Barcelona’s quiet leader. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Barcelona remain top of La Liga despite the loss, one point ahead of Real Madrid. The title race is tight, the schedule is long and the team is young enough to be swayed.

The club’s first captain has moved to Girona, while its second captain has hardly played a few minutes in the past month and a half.

The dressing room needs stabilisers, and De Jong is one of them. His leadership is not from the Carles Puyol school. It is quieter. It is more technical. He leads by offering solutions. Perhaps that is why this emergence feels so slow.

Barcelona always wanted the Ajax midfielder who could control games. What they are getting now is something rarer: a captain who can control the entire team from his metronome position on the pitch.

The story is not finished. At Barcelona, the story is never complete until it has been written under Champions League lights.

For now, one can say with some assurance that Frenkie de Jong is no longer just trying to fit in at Barcelona. He is starting to carry it.