"I had to show Xavi that I could help this great club"

Few had faith in Luuk de Jong when he arrived at Barcelona. Even fewer believed in the player after the club decided to sack his first manager, Ronald Koeman, and replaced him with Xavi Hernandez.

However, the striker has won the trust of his manager and Xavi even rotated him ahead of Memphis Depay in Barca's last match against Real Sociedad. 

"With Ronald Koeman, I had to show my quality everyday in training. In my opinion, when you don't perform well in training, you don't deserve to play in the matches. Not much has changed for me personally since Koeman left. I have to keep doing the same. He knows who I am and how I play", said De Jong on 'NOS'.

The forward confessed that he had to "show him that I could help this great club". "I had to demonstrate my quality to him from the first moment and what I have to offer to the team, what I can do in this great club. In short, that I am able to help the team", he added. 

"When I arrived here, I knew that I had come to one of the biggest clubs in the world. Despite this, I was surprised by the quality of the players and how easily things turned out. With this quality and hard work, we can form a strong group", he highlighted.

De Jong was questioned on how he almost left to Cadiz in January, and he responded: "Personally, I always knew that I would end my first season at Barca. I moved to Barca, so I didn't want to go anywhere else after only a few months".