Barcelona manager Matteo Alemani decided Dembele’s future, noting that the player made it clear that he did not want to stay within the walls of the “Camp Nou” stadium, and therefore he would have to leave the team and leave before the end of this month.
Dembele’s contract is scheduled to expire next summer, and therefore he will be able to leave for free, but the club has decided to give it up for now, as a result of the conditions that the player tried to set. It is reported that the French player joined Barcelona from German Borussia Dortmund in 2017, in a deal worth 140 million euros ($ 158.9 million).
According to the French press agency, Barcelona wanted to avoid this scenario in light of the large debts besieging the club, which amount to regarding one billion euros, but now it hopes to find the departure of Dembele an opportunity to revive his financial fund if sold during the winter transfer period. Yesterday, Thursday, Alemani said: “We started talks with Othman and his agent around July, so more than six months have passed. We’ve talked over and over once more. Barcelona offered different offers. He continued: “We tried to find a way for the player to continue with us, but these offers were systematically rejected by his agents and today on January 20, 11 days before the end of the last period of his contract, it seems clear to us that the player does not want to continue at Barcelona. He is not committed to Barcelona’s future project. He added: “In this scenario, he has been informed and his agents have been informed that he must leave immediately because we want players committed to this project, and therefore we hope that the deal will be completed before the 31st of this month.”
Dembele has suffered many injuries in recent years and has not lived up to his ambitions
“The sporting consequences of all this, as agreed by our coach, is that we do not want to have players who are not committed to the project and who do not want to be in Barcelona,” Alemani explained. “It is clear that it is not the club that should decide that, it is the coach, and he has decided that. But he has all of our support and we totally understand that. It seems to us quite the right approach.”
It is worth noting that the new coach of the team, Xavi Hernandez, excluded Dembele from the squad that faced Athletic Bilbao in the 16th round of the Spanish Cup, which was played on Thursday evening. “We can’t wait any longer,” Xavi said. Either he renews the player or we are looking for an exit for the player, there is no other possibility.” He also indicated that he “does not think” of leaving Dembele in the stands until the summer, “It is a shame. He has played every possible minute since I became a coach.”
Dembele has suffered many injuries in recent years and has not lived up to the ambitions placed on him in Barcelona.
However, following losing many prominent players to reduce the club’s debts, led by Argentine star Lionel Messi, who left for Paris Saint-Germain last summer, Barcelona was keen to keep Dembele, who is still one of the most talented players in the team, despite the setbacks. He was subjected to several incidents, but things did not go as well as they should.
