After Ferran Torres became the favourite to replace him in recent transfer rumours, Ousmane Dembele could leave Barcelona this summer.
Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele’s current contract at Camp Nou ends after this 2021-22 campaign. In light of this expiry, he is free to negotiate a pre-contract with other clubs starting on January 1.
Barca had initially hoped to reach an agreement with the French winger before that date, which is now two days away.
However, they instead saw this week’s talks crumble when Dembele balked at the wage cut the Blaugrana demanded of him.
Transfer Rumours – Ousmane Dembele Could Leave Barcelona
Now, in the latest football transfer news, Dembele’s contract extension talks with the club collapsed this week, GOAL can confirm.
The deal negotiations did not go as the Blaugrana were expecting them to because they couldn’t meet Dembele’s contract requests. The two sides thus remain a long way apart in their wage proposals.
Both his wages and a bonus for his agent are points of contention. Barcelona believe it’s imperative to slash Dembele’s wages in order to help afford the registration of new signing Ferran Torres.
Torres’ football transfer is suffering a delay due to this because Barca cannot officially add him yet. It’d be illegal for them, after all, to expand their squad under current financial circumstances per La Liga’s salary restrictions.
New Barca manager Xavi has always said that he wants Dembele to be a key part of his rebuild therein.
Xavi Hernandez even recently stated: “We are going to be positive for him to renew, for me it is fundamental.”
So, it’s clear that Xavi and Co are remaining hopeful that a deal can be salvaged despite the dire circumstances. However, given these new developments stated above, that positivity is now waning.
