Dhe dispute between FC Barcelona and soccer professional Ousmane Dembélé over a failed contract extension is coming to a head. After the Spanish club initially announced the separation from the winger on Thursday, the 24-year-old Frenchman accused the Catalans of “blackmail”. He will “no longer bow to blackmail,” he wrote on social networks. For four years he endured “gossip” and “lies”, but that’s the end of it now.
The Catalans’ football director Mateu Alemany had previously announced Dembélé’s split with immediate effect in a video published on the club’s website and accused the former Dortmund professional: “It is obvious that the player does not want to stay at Barcelona and himself not committed to Barça’s future project.”. They only want committed players and hope that a transfer will be possible before January 31st.
In his settlement with the club board, Dembélé energetically rejected the allegations. He “always gave everything”. He forbids anyone to claim that he is not involved. He is still under contract with Barcelona and is therefore still available to the club.
Coach Xavi Hernández had warned the day before that Dembélé would have to extend his contract, which expires after June 30th. Otherwise he will not play for Barcelona anymore. “Either he extends or we solve the case with the player leaving. We have no choice, nothing else,” said the coach before the Catalans’ round of 16 cup game at Athletic Bilbao on Thursday. Dembélé was not fielded again for this game.
Alemany assured that Barça had been in talks with the player and his agent since July 2021. “We made different offers, tried to find a way for the player to continue with us. And these offers were systematically rejected by his agents.” According to Spanish media reports, the player’s agent, Moussa Sissoko, did not want to accept that Dembélé wanted to pay a significantly lower salary in the future.
The financially and sportingly ailing club has debts of 1.35 billion euros. Barça are trying to reduce the level of salaries or to comply with the league rules for the total amount of professional salaries by selling or leasing professionals.
More worries emerged on Thursday evening. After the round of 16 in the Spanish Soccer Cup, the club also complained that young professional Ansu Fati was injured again. According to the club, the 19-year-old suffered an injury to his left thigh in the 2-3 (1-1, 2-2) defeat after extra time in Bilbao. Further investigations should shed light on the severity of the injury, the Catalans said in a statement. Fati came on as a substitute in the 61st minute on Thursday evening and had to be substituted again in the 96th minute of extra time.
“He was very crushed,” said Barça coach Xavi Hernández about the top talent. Fati had already had to take a longer break at the end of last year due to problems with his thigh. “It’s a difficult day,” admitted Xavi and spoke of “difficult times” that the club is going through. In the league, the club of German national goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen is only sixth, 17 points behind leaders Real Madrid. In the Supercup, the Catalans failed in the semi-finals.
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“We have no choice but to work and work. Now we have the league and the Europa League. We have to try to recover quickly,” said Xavi. “Because those are two hard blows, two lost titles in one week.” The former professional Xavi does not believe that the unrest about the former Dortmund player Dembélé had an impact on the team. “Of course he’s an important player, but that didn’t affect us.”
