Getty Ez Abde celebrates with Ousmane Demble.
Ousmane Dembele only signed a new contract at Barcelona in the summer but speculation over his future at the club persists due to the club’s ongoing financial problems.
The Frenchman looked set to leave on a free transfer in the summer window but ended up signing a two-year deal at the Camp Nou. Dembele’s new contract runs until 2024 but Barca will surely want to avoid seeing him going into the final year of his deal again without committing his future to the club.
Indeed the Catalan giants are “seriously considering” the possibility of selling Dembele in January or next summer, as reported by Marti Molina at Diari Ara. Dembele has a buyout clause at €100 million which means he is “relatively affordable” to Europe’s top clubs.
Barcelona already have a replacement in mind for Dembele. Real Madrid winger Marco Asensio is out of contract in the summer and would be a budget option for the Catalan giants.
The Catalans famously came close to landing Asensio before he left Real Mallorca for Real Madrid in 2014. An agreement had been reached between the two clubs but Barca were unwilling to pay Mallorca’s fee which allowed Los Blancos to swoop for the forward instead.
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Dembele Committed to Barcelona?
Dembele has appeared committed to Barcelona after signing his new contract at the club. The winger has admitted he wasted his time at the club in his early years at the Camp Nou due to continued injury problems.
The 24-year-old also told RMC Sport that Xavi’s willingness to keep faith in him throughout his contract talks with Barcelona in 2022 helped him decide to stay on at the club.
“Trust is very important, and Xavi has given it to me,” he said. “After what Xavi told me, I decided to stay. I want Barça to win the Champions League again. It’s been seven years since they’ve done that. I always told Xavi that I wanted to stay at the club. Afterwards, it was negotiations and contractual. I remember a meeting in December, where I told him that I was going to sign my contract. I always said that I wanted to stay in Barça and I feel good there.”
Dembele has appeared a changed man in 2022 after putting his injury problems behind him and managing to play regularly for the club. The winger finished last season top of the assists charts in La Liga and has four in six matches this season.
Yet Dembele’s decision to only sign a short-term extension at Barcelona means speculation over his future is never likely to be far away.
Asensio Talks Barcelona Future
Meanwhile, Asensio has been asked about speculation that Barcelona could be interested in his services and certainly did not rule out a future move to the Camp Nou. The winger told Cope he did not know what the future might hold for him.
“As of January I can sign for any club and it is normal for many rumors to come out,” he said. “I’ve never thought about a future at Barça, I have not valued it… so, I don’t know! Right now, I can’t answer. We’ll see what happens, you never know in the world of football. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Barcelona have made a habit of signing free agents in recent transfer window, not least because of their financial difficulties, but bringing in a Real Madrid player may not go down too well with supporters.
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