Ousmane Dembélé’s future seems to move away from Barcelona, although his transfer to PSG will not take place today, as they perceived in Can Barça in recent days. Everything seemed to indicate that the French international would join the Parisian team before the end of this Monday, July 31, after paying his release clause, 50 million, which as of tomorrow, August 1, will rise to 100. The possible departure of the player, quick and unexpected, caught Barcelona by surprise. For Xavi, the attacker is essential and non-transferable and they feared paying the termination clause for him. PSG and the player’s representative, Moussa Sissoko, were in a hurry to close the deal before the end of July. However, the final decision has fallen on Dembélé himself, who is looking to leave the Barça team but who has asked for an agreement between the three parties.
Despite the fact that their future would be close to Paris, Barça breathes by ensuring that PSG does not take a capital player for 50 million. An amount of which the club would only receive half (25 million) and the other part would go to the player’s own pockets, as they had agreed in their renewal last summer. For now, Dembélé will travel today with the rest of the Barça expedition to Las Vegas for the last game of the American tour against Milan (Wednesday at 5:00). As of this midnight, with the clause set at 100 million, PSG will seek an agreement with Barça.
The club chaired by Joan Laporta thus manages to sit down to negotiate with the Parisians, aspiring to a greater profit and not taking only half of the transfer. Even if an agreement is not finally reached and PSG withdraws its interest, the Catalan club and Xavi himself would manage to keep an essential player for the Barça coach. For him it has always been a key piece in his scheme, he insisted on the club to renew it the previous summer and has reiterated several times that “he can be the best in the world in his position.”
Despite this twist in the script, produced by Ousmane’s desire for a negotiation between the three parties, the player would agree to leave, but he does not want to leave Barcelona, taking full responsibility for his departure after seven years in the Catalan capital. Barça offered him a renewal offer until 2027 and they planned to talk about it when he returned from the United States. But Dembélé and his representative distrusted the club, since they considered that the culé board of directors had the intention of getting rid of the player. In addition, relations with Mateu Alemany have never flowed.
The sports director was not in favor of renewing the Frenchman last summer. In fact, in January 2022 when the negotiations broke down, due to the high financial demands of his representative, Alemany was blunt: “The player does not want to continue at Barcelona and is not committed to Barça’s future project. In this scenario, he and his agents have been informed that he must leave the club immediately ”. Last summer Dembélé left Barcelona free and it was Xavi who insisted to the culé board on the importance of Ousmane in their game scheme and managed to renew the Frenchman, who, having no more offers, accepted one lower than his initial claims. .
Once peace was sealed with Mateu Alemany, Deco’s incorporation into the sports management team, which has yet to be officially presented, was not viewed favorably by the player’s entourage. The fact that Deco was the representative until this summer of Raphinha, a player with whom he competes in the band, has not helped the relationship with the Portuguese to be the best.
The next few hours seem decisive. Barça agrees to negotiate with PSG for the French international. The only certainty is that the club will be able to obtain a greater financial return than initially expected, although it would lose an essential player for Xavi. His possible departure turns the left winger position into a new flank to reinforce. Abde, who had offers to leave, will be able to see how his minutes increase and the club will release a part of the salary bill that will help to register players and try a transfer that, until now, seemed unfeasible.
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