Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong has hit out at fake news that has “angered and irritated” him after being ruled out for months with a knee injury.
De Jong, 29, called out one journalist in particular, Gerard Romero, for “lies” claiming that he refused to play against Atlético Madrid in the Champions League last season, has fallen out with Barça coach Hansi Flick and has a bad relationship with the club’s hierarchy.
“There is a lot of noise surrounding me and a lot of fake news,” De Jong told the club’s official media channels Friday. “It’s bothering me, so I want to clear a couple of things up.
“Publishing so much fake news does damage to my image. For example, Gerard Romero said I refused to play against Atlético last season in the Champions League. It’s fake news. It’s not true. It’s my dream to play for Barça — of course I want to play in Champions League matches. I don’t understand how he can say that.
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“People see that and they get angry with me. We live in a time where it is more important for many journalists to publish something rather than get something out that is true.
“Then he said my relationship with the coach is bad. False. I have a very good relationship with [Flick]. We talk a lot.
“[He said] that my relationship with the club is bad. False again. I speak with a lot of people at the club.
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“Gerard Romero has told other lies in the past. But I am not going to let it slide any more because he has to understand that if he publishes fake news I am going to call him out.”
Speaking on his Twitch channel after the interview was published, Romero said he stood by everything he had reported on De Jong’s situation at the club.
De Jong added that he is happy for people to cast judgement on whether he is good enough to play for Barça or not, but that the “fake reports affect me.”
“I see things that anger and irritate me,” he said.
The Dutch midfielder will miss the start of the new season with a knee ligament injury, which led to the latest round of stories which annoyed him.
It was suggested he had prioritised playing for his country at the World Cup over his club by playing on when he first injured his knee.
“I wanted to get all this off my chest so I can focus on my recovery,” he continued. “I am really pissed off with the injury. What I most love is playing football.
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“I had some bad luck; an accident in training. Someone fell on me and I had a small issue with the knee. Tests showed a small problem, but [the physios] told me I could keep playing through the pain. They assured me it would not get worse.
“Playing at the World Cup is a dream, so I did [play on]. I stayed in contact with Barça, came back after and did some more tests, which is when a scan showed the injury was more serious than when we did tests in the United States.”
There is currently no timeline for De Jong’s return, although sources told ESPN he is expected to be out for months rather than weeks.
