Nobody should really be surprised by Ousmane Dembele’s antics at Barcelona.
The Frenchman, if you recall, went on strike at Borussia Dortmund in order to get his move to the Camp Nou, but it surely wasn’t too much to expect that some six years later, he would have matured to the extent that he and his agent would conduct their business properly.
Seemingly, that is again beyond them, and with only a few days to go until the start of the new Spanish top-flight campaign, Dembele is off to Paris Saint-Germain.
‘PSG will pay €50m in any case, Barça will receive a bit more than €25m; no clarity yet on the final fee as this is a private clause, not an official La Liga clause,’ transfer guru, Fabrizio Romano, wrote in his exclusive CaughtOffside Substack.
‘The rest goes to the player side. Dembele is already in Paris, he will complete the medical and sign very soon until June 2028. Barça will look into replacements for sure.’
Dembele’s move to the French capital is his right of course, but there’s a proper way of doing things and dropping the bomb about leaving in the fortnight before the season starts is just plain bad practice.
If the player had any inkling that PSG were going to come calling, and if he truly had Barca’s best interests at heart, he would’ve been up front about any potential move.
The fact that he’s turned down Barca’s latest offer is one of those things, and he could’ve even given the Catalans a chance to negotiate further.
Instead, with a deal that has to have been put together over the last weeks rather than last days, he’s decided to leave things until the last possible moment before making his decision, and then running away with his tail between his legs.
More must-reads: