Ousmane Dembele makes transfer decision amid £89.7m Liverpool link

Ousmane Dembele is refusing to be hounded out at Barcelona amid reports he could become the fall-guy of the LaLiga giants’ attempts to bring Neymar back to the Nou Camp.

The France forward has endured a frustrating time in Spain since a €120m move from Borussia Dortmund and sections of the Spanish press claim Barca will consider his sale should a suitable offer come in, with €100m (£89.7m) likely to be enough to persuade them to sell.

Barcelona have already agreed to pay €75m to Ajax for Frenkie De Jong, while a €120m deal for Antoine Griezmann is said to be close. Furthermore, Barca are also said to be closing on a deal to bring Neymar back to the club, having sold the Brazilian to PSG for a world-record €222m back in 2017.

As such, it’s claimed Barcelona’s board are looking to recoup some of their planned investments, with Dembele, Ivan Rakitic and Samuel Umtiti tipped to become three high-profile casualties of their efforts to re-sign Neymar. The latter of those, Umtiti, was reportedly told he could leave the Nou Camp for a knockdown £45m this summer.

We exclusively revealed last month that Barcelona intermediaries have told Liverpool that Dembele will be made available this summer, and that Anfield was, in fact, one of his preferred destinations.

Bayern Munich are also keen to bring the France star back to Germany, but Kicker insisted on Tuesday that Liverpool are ‘serious contenders’ to sign the former Rennes man and are now readying an official approach.

However, reports in the German media claim the player is intent on staying at the Nou Camp and that he won’t be forced out by their efforts to bring in star additions in attack.

“The chances that Ousmane will play at Bayern next season are almost zero,” a source close to Dembele told Sky Germany.

“He is and will remain at Barcelona.”

Liverpool had not planned on a huge outlays this summer, unless one of Jurgen Klopp’s top targets came to the market – and Dembele is one of those.

However, the player’s stance appears to have silenced those claims for now.

Dembele scored 14 goals in 42 games last season, but it was his miss – when leading 3-0 at home to Liverpool in the closing stages of their Champions League semi-final first leg – which most fans remembered.

 

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