Sources from The Athletic said Barca wrote a letter to De Jong on July 15 about this issue.

De Jong played and scored in Barca’s 6-0 friendly win over Pumas Unam at Camp Nou on August 7.

Under Josep Bartomeu, Barca announced the recruitment of De Jong from Ajax in January 2019, but the contract took effect from July 2019.

On October 20, 2020, when Bartomeu was still in office, Barca extended De Jong’s contract until the end of June 2026.

Barca announced the extension with De Jong at the same time they signed a new contract for goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and midfielders Gerard Pique and Clement Lenglet.

The letter Barca sent to De Jong on July 15 said that the team is ready to participate in criminal proceedings and investigate wrongdoings of the parties in the contract.

Bartomeu’s side affirmed that De Jong’s contract is completely legal, and was approved by legal authorities as well as La Liga.

Barca representatives and De Jong have discussed further since that letter.

Barca also told De Jong that they wanted to cancel the contract signed on October 20, 2020, and return to the July 2019 agreement.

Barca still owes De Jong about 20 million USD in salary.

What Barca is doing can reinforce the views of Dutch Players Association President Evgeniy Levchenko.

The world players’ association FIFPro is also monitoring the issue between Barca and De Jong.

Barca is also doing the same thing with Gerard Pique and Ter Stegen, while Lenglet is on loan at Tottenham.

De Jong does not want to stay at Barca, but he has not said which destination he wants to go to.

Despite financial difficulties, Barca has recruited many outstanding players such as Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Jules Kounde.

When contacted by The Athletic, Barca refused to comment on threatening to sue De Jong.