Real Madrid offered chance to sign Ligue 1 superstar to replace Cristiano Ronaldo, Barcelona make huge Paul Pogba decision and more: Transfer Round-up, November 17, 2018

Barcelona decide to pursue Frenkie De Jong instead of Paul Pogba

Juventus v Manchester United - UEFA Champions League Group H

The Frenchman has been linked with a move to Barcelona for quite a while now and with speculations reaching a fever-pitch, reports from the Spanish media with Mundo Deportivo (via Daily Mail) in particular, claim that Barcelona have decided to pursue Ajax wonderkid Frenkie De Jong to bolster their midfield.

As per the report, Barcelona are willing to pay £100m to sign the 21-year-old.

Pep Segura in a recent radio interview with Cadena SER said,

"Pogba or De Jong? In general, we will always need players like De Jong because this is the profile we want, but we have always had players whose characteristics are not as faithful as those requested by the club, as with Seydou Keita who provided the balance needed to meet the challenges,"

"And the big competitions, like the Champions League, claim every time players of different profiles."

Manchester City are the other big team that's been credited with an interest in the youngster.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad