27-year-old star in last chance salon against Real Betis to salvage Barcelona career | OneFootball

FC Barcelona annihilated Real Madrid in the finals of the Spanish Super Cup, securing an impressive 5-2 win. The Catalan club fought all the odds including being a man down for nearly 40 minutes in the second half and despite all this, they managed to hold on.

The flip side of having played such a high-intensity game is that it would have taken a piece out of the players physically and with very little turnaround time between that game and the Real Betis encounter in the Copa del Rey, Hansi Flick should be thinking rotations.

Rotations could mean some fringe players getting a chance against Real Betis and one of them could be Frenkie de Jong. As per SPORT, the 27-year-old Dutchman could face this Copa del Rey encounter as a last chance salon to salvage his career at the club.

Until last season, under every single Barcelona manager he has played under, Frenkie de Jong has been one of the first names on the team sheet. However, ever since his ankle injury, the Dutchman has been a pale shadow of his former self.

Despite Hansi Flick trying to ease him back into action and hoping for the ex-Ajax man to become a starter again, Frenkie seems to lack the competitive desire that might help him fight for a spot in the starting XI.

However, one would expect Hansi Flick to give him yet another start against Real Betis at the expense of one of Pedri or Marc Casado, the two of whom have played many minutes in midfield for Barcelona so far this season.

With less than a year and a half to go on his current contract at Barcelona, it is ‘now or never’ time for Frenkie de Jong. He needs to put in a string of consistent displays to convince Hansi Flick of a position in the squad.

Frenkie doesn’t need to look far away for inspiration. One look at just how Gavi has fought his way back into the starting XI after suffering an ACL injury should give him enough motivation. Only time will tell how it plays out going forward.