Just six years later, it happens again. Paris Saint-Germain snatch one of Barcelona‘s most important players. On August 3, 2017, it was Neymar and the club took 222 million euros. This time it is Ousmane Dembele and the Azulgrana will perceive 50.4 million euros. Everything came to light last Friday, July 28 and has since accelerated.
The Parisian club wanted to cover its back against the possible departure of Kylian Mbappe and bet everything on Dembele, who signs for five years.
Talks with Xavi Hernandez and Mateu Alemany to try to convince him of his importance in the Azulgrana project have been of little use. “Our game is adapted to him,” Marc-Andre Ter Stegen said last Saturday.
The one who has done most to try to avoid the leak has been the coach. Xavi has not stopped praising Dembele from day one. He has always defined him as a player with the potential to be “the best in the world in his position”, but that has not been enough to seduce him.
In fact, the coach himself was somewhat disappointed with how it all went down.
Dembele and Barcelona had a private agreement by which an entity could sign the player for 50 million euros if the winger communicated it before July 31 and if the operation was given within a maximum period of 5 days. In the end, this was the case.
His last game, the Clasico
The player completed the tour of the United States but did not play in the match against AC Milan, early Wednesday morning. Therefore, the Frenchman’s last match in the Barcelona jersey was El Clasico in Dallas, where he scored the first goal of the match.
Xavi‘s squad landed on Wednesday night in Barcelona and last Thursday, by lunch, Dembele was already on a flight to Paris.
Now the Azulgrana will have to search the market for a replacement for his position. It is true that the team has several players who can play in that position, but none of the level of the former Borussia Dortmund player.
Delay with the transfer
Although everything was closed last week, the Azulgrana have retained the transfer of the French player to try to pressure the representative not to take half of the total amount of the transfer of 50m.
A delay that forced the player, who had already set foot in the French capital, to return to training last Sunday under the orders of Xavi. His departure was taken for granted, but the mess of paperwork forced the forward to appear at the training session for the last time.
End of the soap opera
Dembele‘s move to PSG was an open secret, and although it was delayed, both the Blaugrana and the Parisian club have now made it official. The winger will wear the number 23 in Paris and sign for five seasons, until 2028.
“We are delighted to welcome Ousmane Dembele to PSG, where he will be an important and committed player for our club. The passion and determination shown by Ousmane when he joined PSG is fantastic and is the attitude required for all our players. We are proud to have another French World Cup winner at PSG as we enter a great new era for our club,” explained Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
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