Barcelona are still keen on offloading winger Ousmane Dembélé at the end of the season, despite the club struggling to find potential buyers.
The Catalans’ financial woes amid the coronavirus pandemic are well documented, with the Blaugrana needing to balance the books via player sales by the start of July. Nelson Semedo, Arthur Melo, Samuel Umtiti, Arturo Vidal and Ivan Rakitic are just some of the high-profile names they’re trying to shift.
And Catalan news outlet SPORT believe Dembélé is on that long list of players Barcelona are swiftly attempting to get off their books.
The report notes that the Blaugrana have taken the decision to put the mightily talented Frenchman on the market, and they’ll let the player’s agent know at the end of the season in August.
However, the club are hoping Dembélé’s fit in time for the potential return of the Champions League later this summer. The club know it’ll be tough to recuperate a significant chunk of the €105m they spent to acquire 23-year-old from Borussia Dortmund in 2017 considering his injury woes this term.
An impressive European campaign to potentially round off his Barça career could see his value surge again and more potential buyers coming to the fore. They currently value the Frenchman at €60m.
However, there are yet to be any firm offers for Dembélé despite interest from Liverpool, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.
The Bianconeri, in particular, are believed to be keen on an initial loan deal before making a judgement about his long-term future.
The player, meanwhile, has already expressed his desire to stay in Catalonia via his camp. Dembélé, who has 19 goals and 17 assists in 74 Barcelona appearances, is determined to prove himself at the European giants, but the club have other plans and will let his agent know with the objective of moving him on and bringing in necessary money.
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