As in other industries, the war for talent also exists in football. We have witnessed at least five giant European clubs were fighting for talents on this January transfer window, they were Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Chelsea, and Bayern Munich. The hot items were Frenkie de Jong and Callum Hudson-Odoi, both are under 22 years old.
Frenkie de Jong
Frenkie de Jong, Ajax Amsterdam midfielder wanted by Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, and Manchester City, finally decided to join the Catalan club. The agent of the 21-year-old has given Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain official news that his client has decided to join Barcelona and is grateful for the interest of the two European giants. The failure to recruit de Jong made Manchester City act quickly by recruiting another young talent Ko Itakura from Kawasaki Frontale who was immediately loaned to FC Groningen to gain experience playing in a European league.
Barcelona have confirmed the purchase of Frenkie de Jong from Ajax Amsterdam at a price of 75 million euros, defeating Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City's offer to the midfielder. De Jong's market value is currently estimated at around 60 million euros, but Barcelona were willing to pay more for de Jong.
Ajax will also get additional of 11 million euros should de Jong successful at Camp Nou. At the moment, de Jong will remain with Ajax until the end of the season and will head to Barcelona in the middle of the year under 5-year contract until 2024.
Callum Hudson-Odoi
On the other place, Chelsea insisted to reject all offers for their young winger Callum Hudson-Odoi. Bayern Munich, the front-runner in the hunt, is forced to find another target for their transfer.
Bayern will lose their winger Arjen Robben at the end of the season, so they are trying to find a replacement, and Hudson-Odoi is Bayern's number one transfer target to replace Robben. Bayern even promised Robben's number 10 jersey to Hudson-Odoi and offered 35 million pounds to Chelsea for the 18-year-old player.
Hudson-Odoi, who felt that he didn't get enough chance to play at Chelsea, submitted a transfer request to the club to force his transfer to Bayern. He even threatened the club to leave in the next transfer window if his move was blocked by Chelsea. The offer of a salary of 85 thousand pounds per week was not able to convince him to stay.
The player believes he will have more opportunities to play in the senior team at Bayern. While Chelsea believes they have given him enough time to play as an 18-year-old teenager and are trying to find a place for him in the senior team.
Bayern's aggressive approach towards the player was not welcomed by Chelsea, Maurizio Sarri showed his dislike to Bayern Munich Sports Director Hasan Salihamidzic for his move.
However, Chelsea's decision was firm to reject all offers for the teenager. It seems that Chelsea are trying to make Hudson-Odoi a part of their future team. The future of the 18-years-old winger is certainly still very long and he might become Chelsea's future team.
As long as there is a shortage of high-skilled talents, the war for talent in football, as in other industries, will never end. As more money comes to the football industry, the war will become harsher. And as in other industries, talents always win.
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