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Xavi and Laporta, arm in arm in the Dembélé series

BarcelonaIf it were for Mateu Alemany, Ousmane Dembélé would not be at Barça. The manager of the club’s football area went to pieces with the player and his representative, tired of waiting for a firm answer, of the agent’s contradictions and blocking his hypothetical exit from the Blaugrana team on last winter But Alemany is a businessman and, despite getting tired of it all, he had to put the personal side aside to pay attention to what he was told from the shop. President Joan Laporta, who had initially stood by him and wanted to get rid of the footballer, heeded the request of Xavi Hernández, who wanted to renew him. And that’s how, on July 14, Mosquit signed an agreement to continue playing at the Camp Nou for two more years. Folder resolved? No. The serial only finished the season and now it’s time for another one with an equally uncertain prognosis.

With the suspension of the League for the World Cup, Barça takes the opportunity to work on sports planning. The one of this season, where there may be movements in the winter market, and the next. And Dembélé’s name is back on the table. The French winger, who is already in Qatar with his national team, will have two proposals from the club in the coming weeks. One, to extend the contract beyond 2024. And the other, to invite him to leave in the summer of 2023. “It has to be one option or the other. What we don’t want is for the season to start 23/ 24 with us having a single year of contract”, they explain from the offices. It is exactly the same thing they wanted to do in the summer of 2021, but Dembélé was injured – precisely with France – and his case was stuck.

Now comes a new scenario. As ARA explained in the summer, when Barça renewed Dembélé, he did so with conditions that allowed him to leave the Blaugrana team with some ease. In other words, with a clause of 100 million. But, as reported Brand, the fine print added that if the winger wanted to leave between June and July 2023, the clause dropped to 50 million. Of these, half would stay at Camp Nou and the other half would be pocketed by the footballer and his agent. In fact, from the sports area they recognized that they could even sell Dembélé in January, right after the World Cup. Although this possibility had cooled at the request of Xavi, because the coach continues to trust in the Mosquito and does not want to part with him. In addition, he is not a starter with France, so it is complicated for him to be revalued and for offers to rain in the offices of the Camp Nou.

Dembélé’s renewal and the profit-sharing clause were not due. The footballer’s agent, Moussa Sissoko, was demanding a millionaire commission for the winger to extend the agreement with Barça. A commission that, as he explains, he was denied in 2017 when he signed from Borussia Dortmund. But if five years ago the club could not afford it, in 2022 even less, suffocated by the economic crisis resulting from the pandemic. Therefore, if Dembélé leaves, Sissoko will fill his pockets. Now, the problem is whether it stays: the agent continues to claim his share of the pie. “Mateu does not want to pay him a single euro more. The standard commission, 5% or, at the most, 10%. No more,” say the offices.

Laporta admits that Dembélé’s contract is not a priority at Barça, right now

At Camp Nou they know that Dembélé’s contract is a toothache. The hypothetical departure in January is almost ruled out and that is why there are other priorities. “We are happy with Ousmane, there is no rush to deal with his situation”, explained Joan Laporta in an interview with RAC1, where he spoke of the club’s difficulties in signing due to the fair play of the League. In the offices, numbers have even been made to know if the same thing that was done with Umtiti last winter could be done with Dembélé: a renewal with a progressive salary to gain salary margin. But they are different cases, firstly because the winger already agreed to lower his salary in the summer, and secondly because there is no amortization in the middle. Thus, the margin that would be earned would be small.

Barça has set a deadline of the end of this season to resolve, one way or another, the Dembélé situation. While Mateu Alemany and the economic area see a hypothetical sale as an option to cash out, in the dressing room they consider it a necessary piece. When asked about it, Xavi continued to insist on the same speech: that he is a player who needs to be polished in the tactical field, but that he is a very valuable piece in terms of football. Mosquit’s goals and assists figures support this progression: he has scored five goals and provided five assists in the 20 games he has played – sixteen of which, as a starter – this season. Last season, in 32 games, he started just over half (18), scored two goals and provided 13 assists.

Xavi wants Dembélé to stay. Mateu prefers to sell it to make a box. Laporta, for now, has positioned himself next to the coach. The footballer says he is happy at Barça, but his agent wants to collect the promised commission and will look for him to leave in the summer. And the fans, depending on the day, are as eager to jump onto the field to hug him as to boo him. The second season of the Dembélé series has just started.

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