Opinion: Frenkie de Jong has done his part — now Barcelona fans must respond with faith | OneFootball

FC Barcelona midfield maestro Frenkie de Jong has put pen to paper on a new deal running until 2029, ending months of speculation surrounding his future. With his previous contract entering its final stages, talks had been ongoing for some time, but the Dutchman’s renewal now reaffirms his commitment to the Blaugrana project.

Frenkie arrived at Barcelona in 2019 after a historic season with Ajax. Clubs across Europe were fighting to sign him, but it was the Catalan club that won the race for the signature of the biggest midfield talent going around.

That said, in hindsight, Frenkie moved to Barcelona at the wrong time. It was a team in decline, and this did not help the Dutchman settle. The constant managerial changes also did not help his cause.

Frenkie initially started his Barcelona career as an interior, with Sergio Busquets still controlling the base of the midfield. Even on the odd occasion when the Spaniard was given a rest, Valverde chose to play Rakitic there ahead of the 28-year-old.

Subsequently, Valverde was sacked and replaced by Quique Setién. If you had blinked, you would have missed his stint, and there is not much to read into Frenkie’s role under him. Next came a familiar face in Ronald Koeman.

The Dutch tactician had worked with his compatriot in the national team, and he was expected to be the person to finally bring the best out of Frenkie in a Barcelona jersey. To his credit, he managed to do that to a large extent.

Koeman initially started with a 4-2-3-1, and Frenkie played a role he knew well from his Ajax days. However, the team did not get going in this formation, and the Dutch tactician had to shift to a classic 4-3-3 and later a 3-5-2.

This was when Koeman reinvented Frenkie as a box-crashing No. 8/No. 10 hybrid and found a lot of success with it. There was a spell of three to four months when the Dutch midfielder was scoring for fun and had an absolute ball on the pitch.

Results were very mixed, though, and Koeman was let go, with Xavi Hernandez replacing him. In his first season, the Spanish tactician returned to a classic 4-3-3 with Busquets, Frenkie, and Gavi (or Pedri, whenever he was fit), and the Dutchman again suffered an identity crisis.

In his second season, with Busquets gone and Oriol Romeu not thriving, Frenkie was given a run at the base of midfield, often alongside Andreas Christensen. The Dutchman was finally looking like the player Barcelona bought all those years ago, until injury struck.

In El Clásico in February that season, Frenkie was on the receiving end of a horrendous tackle by Fede Valverde. This setback came at the wrong time for the Dutchman, who was enjoying an excellent run in midfield at that point.

Frenkie took close to seven months to make a comeback on the pitch and, by that time, Xavi had gone, Hansi Flick had arrived, and the German coach had the team playing an exciting brand of football. Marc Casado was thriving at the base of midfield, and the Dutchman looked far off the pace when he returned.

Fans started turning on Frenkie, and his contractual situation did not help his cause either. There were calls for him to be sold in the January transfer window, and every time he played, the Dutchman seemed devoid of any confidence.

However, Hansi Flick saw a vision that no one else did. The German tactician kept persisting with Frenkie, and everything changed in one display against Real Betis in the Copa del Rey sometime in January. The Dutchman produced a masterclass and, since then, he has not looked back.

Since that game, he has grown from strength to strength. Slowly but surely, the confidence returned, and Frenkie kept getting better. His quality on the ball has never been in question, but his commitment in defence has grown manifold.

It did not take long for Frenkie to displace Casado and become the starter at the base of midfield, and he slowly started getting fans back on his side. Still, there was the elephant in the room to be addressed in the form of his contract situation.

Since the beginning of the 2025/26 season, however, Frenkie has been unplayable. At the time of writing, he is probably the second-best midfielder in the world after his partner, Pedri, and the duo have given so much joy to those who watch Barcelona.

Now that Frenkie has put pen to paper on a new contract running until 2029, it is time for even the small section of fans to get behind him and give him the support he deserves. A warrior in our dark times, he is finally emerging as a hero during our brighter ones.

It is not Frenkie’s fault that managers struggled to profile him correctly after his arrival at Barcelona. It is one of the perils of having too much talent, and the Dutchman, capable of playing different roles in midfield, often got caught in between them.

Hansi Flick has been the manager to identify the ideal profile for Frenkie. The results are there for everyone to see, and let us hope everyone admits they got it wrong and gets behind the Dutchman, not just for this season but for the years to come.