Deco clarifies how Frenkie's renewal and Lewandowski's future are progressing

Frenkie de Jong and Robert Lewandowski are two of the players in the FC Barcelona squad whose contracts expire at the end of 2025/26. The Barça board is clear on the roadmap to follow with the Dutchman, while, with the Pole, the age factor weighs in when making decisions.

In a chat with the Brazilian sports portal 'Lance!', Anderson Souza, Deco, revealed details about how negotiations are progressing with two of the club's priority issues before the end of the year. Barça still fails to operate under the 1:1 rule and, therefore, continues to face problems in signing and renewing players.

Frenkie de Jong's renewal with Barça, about to happen

However, the Barça sporting director is confident that, in the case of Frenkie, everything will be resolved in the coming weeks. The midfielder changed agents this year, a determining factor in resuming negotiations between the parties.

"We are in talks. I think we will reach an agreement. He is an important player for us. I think he is happy at Barcelona and we are also happy with him. So I don't think there will be any problem," Deco explained.

The idea is to renew De Jong until 2029 or 2030, with an adjustment to his emoluments. This season, the player from Arkel receives 19 million euros gross, making his salary the second highest in the squad. Only Lewandowski earns more than the '21' at Barça.

Lewandowski's future in Barcelona will be defined in 2026

Lewandowski during the Levante-Barça (2-3).

Less clear is the panorama of the '9' of Barcelona. Robert turned 37 in August and, although Deco values his contribution to the club and his career, he understands that a player of his age should evaluate, season after season, what decisions to make.

"There comes a time in your career when we don't make many future plans. I think he is focused on this year. We are too and we will see. He is a player who depends much more on his will, on how he feels, on how he sees things. We will see his progress throughout the year and we will talk about it," the Barça sporting director pointed out.

'Lewy' earns 26 million gross this season, 6 'kilos' less than what he received the previous year. Although he started the season with a muscle injury, he has seen minutes in four of the five games played by the team, adding a brace against Valencia.

If Barça and the striker agree to extend his contract, the logic points to offering him one more year of contract, until June 2027. Everything will depend on his performance in 25/26, the possibility of staying healthy and approaching his brutal records from the previous year (he scored 42 goals in 52 games).

Deco boasts about Barça's signings in the last summer market

Lamine Yamal and Joan Laporta in front of the Spotify Camp Nou model

On the other hand, Deco also valued the reinforcements incorporated in the summer. Despite the financial problems, Barcelona signed Joan García (25 M€) and Roony Bardghji (2.5 M€), in addition to closing the loan of Marcus Rashford. The Catalan goalkeeper and the English winger were decisive in the first victory in the Champions League 25/26.

"Joan García was a goalkeeper we had been following for some time and he ended up being a priority due to Ter Stegen's injuries last year. We made this decision in a position where we had not had this urgency for two years," he argued regarding the player from Sallent. 

"In addition, we thought we needed a player like Rashford, who can play both as a winger and as an inside forward. We brought in Roony, who is a young kid and we have been following him for a while," added the former Portuguese international. Similarly, he highlighted the possibility of extending the contracts of Lamine Yamal, Jules Koundé and Raphinha.

"Our main priority was to keep what we had and try not to lose any important players." Well, the next ones to renew will be, barring any surprises, Frenkie de Jong and Eric García. With Robert Lewandowski, the board and the player will make a decision in the coming months, as the season progresses.