Wijnaldum reveals the truth about his initial agreement with Barcelona
Jorginho Wijnaldum, the Liverpool player, commented on press reports that he had reached an initial agreement with Barcelona to move to its ranks, in the next summer transfer season.
The Dutch midfielder's current contract with Liverpool expires next summer.
Barcelona sought to obtain the services of Wijnaldum in previous transitional seasons but failed to resolve that step.
Recently, press reports stated that Barcelona reached a preliminary agreement with Wijnaldum on obtaining his signature, at the end of the current season.
"There are constant talks about these things and about my future, but as I have said on other occasions, I have no news yet," Wijnaldum said in statements published by the Spanish newspaper "Sport".
He added, "I have read the information linking me to Barcelona. This is what was said in the media, but I have no news."
He continued: "When there is news, I will tell you about it, but there is currently no news."
He concluded, "I am here now to talk about Turkey, Latvia, and Gibraltar's confrontation with the Netherlands national team."
The Netherlands is participating in the aforementioned matches as part of the European qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Wijnaldum gets excited about a journalist because of the 2022 World Cup: We did not choose to hold the tournament in Qatar
Liverpool midfielder Jorginho Wijnaldum spoke about the World Cup in Qatar, and the possibility of the Netherlands team participating in the competition despite increasing calls to boycott the global event.
Wijnaldum appeared in a press conference today, before tomorrow’s match against Turkey, in the European qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup.
The current period is witnessing increasing calls within the Netherlands to boycott the finals in response to human rights violations inside the country, especially the exploitation of migrant workers who must surrender their passports upon entering the country.
Reports revealed the death of more than 6,500 migrant workers, including those working in building stadiums for the tournament, in the 11 years since Qatar was granted the rights to host the competition.
This led to the Dutch Federation issuing a statement announcing that they would not boycott the finals because it would not benefit the workers, and this resulted in the union being severely criticized.
"It is a big topic," Wijnaldum said at the conference published in the English newspaper "Mirror". "Of course we players have talked about it, as well as with the Dutch federation and Amnesty International."
He added: "We believe that we should participate in the tournament to make a greater impact, then we can have a greater impact for change. If we put a plan with other countries to take care of this matter, it is better. Now it is still difficult to determine how to do that."
And Abizaid: "We still have to qualify, with the approaching World Cup that will become more clear."
He continued: "As with racism, we must all do something about it (violations against workers), but we also did not choose to hold the World Cup in Qatar."
He explained: "I think a lot of people were not always aware of the situation in Qatar, I didn't really hear these stories until when I went to play the Club World Cup there with Liverpool, I didn't know the number of deaths (6,500), I didn't know that, I think this is." It applies to a lot of players. "
Wijnaldum expressed his anger at the end of the conference when he turned to the journalist with whom he started questions about the Netherlands’s action towards violations in Qatar, and said to him: “May I say something else ?!”
He continued: "I was thinking about the question you asked about racism and Qatar, do you really understand what you are doing? You are trying to tell me that we cannot defend those who are exposed to racism just because we will play in Qatar, this is very wrong."
And he continued: "Now you are actually saying that if you are treated on a racial basis, you are not allowed to defend yourself, you cannot make a comparison like this. The story of racism is very difficult, I think we played with the Netherlands in South Africa and Brazil, not everything is going on." Alright there. "
He concluded: "I was thinking about it and I think it is strange, I actually think you are saying that if this happens and you do it (anti-racism) you should do it here as well (avoid playing in Qatar because of violations)."
For his part, the aforementioned journalist replied that he did not want to compare the two situations.