Mendieta identifies most with Frenkie de Jong

There was a time when Gaizka Mendieta was one of the hottest properties in world football, helping Valencia reach two successive Champions League finals at the turn of the millennium, yet now the Spaniard believes the player he can recognise himself most in, is none other than Frenkie de Jong.

Mendieta had a spell with Barcelona in the 2002/03 season in which he scored six goals in 33 appearances, but his best football would come away from the Camp Nou.

You could argue that the same could be said for the Dutch midfielder, who has yet to find the level of performance at Barcelona that he did with Ajax, however he is still very young and part of a team in transition.

"In positional terms as a back-and-forth midfielder with the ability to get into the box and score, I'd say De Jong is very similar to myself," Mendieta explained.

Ronald Koeman has the difficult task of handing De Jong regular football at the current moment, with Sergio Busquets and Miralem Pjanic also preferring the deeper midfield role.

At Ajax, De Jong was the lynchpin of the team which came within 10 seconds of reaching the Champions League final, using his technical ability to keep the ball moving and then get forward towards the box.

Ideally, his qualities would have helped bridge the gap in quality Los Cules' midfield has had since the time of Xavi and Andres Iniesta, yet Koeman's preferred system will see him positioned far deeper than at Ajax for the foreseeable future.

On the other hand, this is the role where the former Everton coach used the player during his time in charge of the Dutch national team, and De Jong found it easy to impress in such an environment, so Barcelona may yet get the 2020 version of Mendieta yet, at least according to the former Spanish international.