Fenerbahce have reportedly emerged as the frontrunners to sign on-loan Barcelona forward Luuk de Jong in the upcoming January transfer window.
According to a report from Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona are ready to part ways with on-loan striker Luuk de Jong in the January transfer window, with Fenerbahce emerging as the favourites to sign the Dutchman.
De Jong arrived at Barcelona late on the summer transfer deadline day. The 31-year-old was brought in as a replacement for Antoine Griezmann, who departed to Atletico Madrid. Signed on a season-long loan deal from Sevilla, the Catalan giants have the option of making his transfer permanent at the end of the season.
However, the move has failed spectacularly as De Jong has struggled to make any impact at Camp Nou and has largely looked like an ill-advised signing. To date, he has made 11 appearances across all competitions scoring just one goal and has fallen out of favour under new manager Xavi Hernandez.
Even though Barcelona have been short on options in attack, the manager has been reluctant to use the Netherlands international. And, with the January transfer window on the horizon, the Blaugrana are ready to ship him out of the club as they look to ease the financial burden by getting his wages off the books.
Parent club Sevilla have no intentions of taking him back midway through the season and would not stand in the way of him being sent out to a different club for the rest of the campaign. Recent reports indicated that Barcelona planned a loan swap deal with Inter Milan involving De Jong and Alexis Sanchez.
However, it has emerged that Barça have no interest in signing the Chilean international and are instead focusing all their attention on landing Manchester City star Ferran Torres. At the same time, they remain intent on offloading De Jong, though, and Turkish giants Fenerbahce have emerged as the most likely destination for the ex-Newcastle United star.
Besiktas were touted as a destination, but they are not in a position to afford his wages and are not looking to sign a striker. Instead, their rivals Fenerbahce are believed to be the best-placed team to sign the on-loan Barcelona striker next month. Even though they have Serdar Dursun as their main striker, the Turkish outfit are keen on landing the 31-year-old De Jong.
It remains to be seen if the move does go through or whether the Netherlands striker ends up staying put at Barcelona.
