Dembélé stays at Barcelona, accepts pay cut

The saga of Dembélé’s sulking about a pay rise or going elsewhere is over, but with a different result than expected and above all than the French footballer himself expected. After a fortnight without an engagement, he has signed a new two-year contract at the Camp Nou.

In the last five years, that is, since the then twenty-one-year-old Ousmane Dembélé moved from Dortmund to Barcelona for 140 million euros, we have seen the best version of the Frenchman under Xavi’s management. The proof of that was 13 assists in 21 league games last season.

It’s just that, along with how willing he was on the pitch, he and his agent were exactly the opposite when negotiating an extension to his expiring contract in the Catalan capital. In numbers parlance, following the club’s directive, they demanded a €20 million annual salary plus a €40 million signing bonus in a new contract for Dembélé.

Totally unacceptable terms for a Barca drowning in debt, of course. The club’s management thus flatly rejected the demands and accepted the fact that the 2022/23 season will already be without the former Rennes player.

At the end of June, Dembélé’s contract with Barcelona expired and it was only to be expected where the speedy winger would eventually land. In the game were mainly London Chelsea, whose coach Thomas Tuchel remembers Dembélé’s abilities well from their time together at Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Bavaria.

The newly signed contract secures Dembélé’s services to Barca until 2024 and means a 40 per cent lower salary for the French international than he has been receiving in the heart of Catalonia. There is also new competition for him on the right wing in the form of Leeds arrival Raphinha.

However, it was on the 2018 World Cup winner’s performance that Xavi Hernandez relied heavily, giving him plenty of freedom on the pitch, allowing the two-footed footballer to turn the heads of more than one opposing player on many occasions. Moreover, the Frenchman is still only twenty-five, so it can be assumed that his best is still ahead of him.

Sources: Goal, Transfermarkt