🇪🇸 Frenkie de Jong proving to be the symbol of Barçelona's resurgence | OneFootball

“It’s an opponent you usually find in the Champions League,” Barcelona head coach Xavi said in December after his side has just been drawn with Napoli in the Europa League.

“It will be hard for us for sure but there are two months before we meet them and hopefully we’ll be in a better moment.”

A better moment seemed a world away at that stage. Xavi’s side sat eighth in the league having won just six times all season.

Fast forward two months and his hopes have come to fruition.

Barcelona have manoeuvred their way into the last 16 of the Europa League after a stunning performance in the second leg in Naples, winning 4-2 and they could have helped themselves to seven or eight.

It is a result that comes in the midst of a six-match unbeaten run which has seen them score four goals in three of the last five games and catapulted them into the top four of LaLiga.

This is the better moment Xavi was wishing for and no player symbolises the recent improvement more than Frenkie de Jong.

The Dutch midfielder produced the thumbnail of the match, the goal you’re clicking on the YouTube highlights of this game for and skipping straight to.

De Jong picked the ball up around 30 yards, glided into the middle of the pitch with the audacity of a gazelle and curled into the top corner.

Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret wore the expression of a child holding a sparkler at a firework display; left helpless as magic unfolded before his very eyes.

This is starting to become a regular occurrence for 24-year-old, he has scored four goals in his last 12 games for the Blaugrana.

He had only found the net nine times in his previous two seasons as the Camp Nou but De Jong wasn’t bought from Ajax for €86m in 2019 for his goalscoring prowess.

While in Amsterdam he had made his name as being the midfield orchestrator, operating from a deep position and dictating the play of his team.

A move to Barcelona seemed to match up with the twilight years and likely phasing out of Sergio Busquets; De Jong was the heir to the playmaking throne the Spaniard had held for years.

It hasn’t quite worked out that way so far for the Dutchman which has been as much to do with Busquets’ decline not quite taking place as planned as it has to do with De Jong’s own performances.

Speculation persisted over a move in the January transfer move with the player still capable of earning Barcelona much-needed big money from somewhere.

But a transfer didn’t materialise.

De Jong remained and has transformed to a different type of midfielder entirely.

Before Xavi’s first game as manager against Espanyol on November 20, De Jong had managed three shots on target in LaLiga all season. He’s mustered six in the 13 games since then operating as more of an advanced no. 8 type of midfielder.

His goals against Alavés and Valencia came from a late run into the penalty area beyond the defence to tap home.

This is a new aspect to De Jong’s game, even at Ajax he scored just five times in over 85 appearances.

His new head coach has been working on something with him behind the scenes and the rewards are being reaped.

The apparent future of Barça’s midfield is now affecting games in the present.