Barcelona have confirmed they have won the race to sign Ajax wonderkid Frankie de Jong in a deal worth an initial €75m (£65.3m).
De Jong was heavily linked with moves to Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City but the Netherlands international has elected to join Barcelona.
The Spanish champions sent a delegation to Amsterdam over the weekend in a stunning late play to convince De Jong to pledge his future to the Blaugrana.
Barcelona succeeded in their mission and even out-bid PSG in order to land the 21-year-old, agreeing to pay a further €11m (£9.6m) in performance related add-ons.
De Jong will spend the rest of the season at Ajax before putting pen to paper on a five-year deal with Ernesto Valverde’s side in the summer.
Barcelona have earmarked De Jong as Sergio Busquet’s long-term replacement and in signing the youngster they have delivered huge blows to their European rivals.
However, De Jong’s big-money arrival will come at a cost to Barcelona, who are already dangerously close to breaching Financial Fair Play regulations.
It has already emerged in Spain that Barcelona will reportedly have to sell two of Ivan Rakitic, Philippe Coutinho and Samuel Umtiti at the end of the season in order to balance their books.
Coutinho only joined Barcelona 12 months ago in a stunning deal worth £142m from Liverpool but the Brazil international has already been heavily linked with a move back to the Premier League.
De Jong averages more passes per game than any other player in the Eredivisie this season (80.1), while also boasting an impressive pass success rate of 92.2%.
