Ousmane Dembélé arrived in Las Vegas, the last stop on Barcelona’s American tour, with a serious face. Aware that he has become the focus of attention, he put on his headphones and advanced looking at the ground following in Kessié’s footsteps and closely watched by his compatriot Koundé. These two footballers together with Lenglet are the ones the Frenchman is moving with the most in his last days as a FC Barcelona player.
It is not being a placid tour for the club. Beyond the gastroenteritis that affected 15 team players and for which the match against Juventus at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara ended up being canceled or Arsenal’s half-hour delay at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, this Tuesday the team suffered a new unforeseen event to reach the idle and nocturnal Las Vegas. The Barcelona expedition landed four and a half hours behind schedule due to two setbacks. In the first place, the plane that had to transport the board of directors, soccer players and coaching staff arrived late from Canada. Then a sandstorm in Las Vegas caused a further two hours of landing delay. The team, which arrived after 9:00 p.m., went to the Palms hotel without training.
During the trip, Xavi Hernández and also some executives came to speak with Dembélé, sitting next to Marcos Alonso. “Look at Neymar. Look what happened to him. He left and since he left the club in 2017 he only thinks about coming back ”, they remarked. Dembélé did not respond. Although he has not yet given the OK to his transfer. The placet he has to accept expires on Friday. His termination clause is already 100 million euros. However, the renewal contract that Dembélé signed until June 2024 with a higher salary than the previous one contains several exceptions that Barça approved so that the footballer would not leave for free and because they consider him an essential player. Especially Xavi.
Now the representatives have asserted one of the conditions. This is a contract clause defined as a mandatory transfer that states that if the footballer let the club know his willingness to leave before July 31, his starting price was set at 50 million euros. Half for the player. However, Barça has doubts about the legal discussion that it is consulting with its lawyers. They consider that the open negotiations between Dembélé and PSG do not conform to the wording of this mandatory transfer clause.
To activate this requirement, beyond the letter that PSG sent to the club requesting permission to negotiate with the footballer, the agents sent a second letter on July 30 confirming that the player’s wish is to go to PSG. Dembélé also wants to avoid paying a clause that has a more harmful tax treatment for him and that is why the three parties are open to negotiating a transfer. “The exit clause is 50 million euros,” say sources from Barça’s sports leadership, tired of the episodes that Dembélé and his agent have starred in in the last two years and who hope to achieve something more than those 25 million that would correspond.
In the economic and sports area of ????the club, they are also waiting to see what they enter with their sale of the French winger to calculate the salary mass that it releases and to be able to strengthen themselves in this market. Since last June 28 and at the initiative of Mateu Alemany who spoke with LaLiga, clubs can use 50% of what they save in salaries (not long ago it was 25%) to make new hires. This percentage goes up to 60% if the player represents more than 5% of the cost of the sports squad. It is the case of Dembélé.
Fatigue and frustration over the unexpected situation have taken their toll on the Barcelona expedition. President Joan Laporta arrived in Las Vegas, signed several autographs and went to dinner with Vice President Rafa Yuste and executives. Without smiling, an unusual scene for the president. Xavi is also frustrated. With the departure of the Frenchman, the squad he trains is further weakened. “We need to strengthen ourselves more,” he warned after winning the classic, referring to the positions of right back and another midfielder. He still had hopes that he could convince Dembélé. Now a new scenario is opening up because although it has wingers like Abde, Ansu Fati or Ferran Torres, Xavi considers that he no longer has the profile of an unbalancing winger. At the moment, there is a consensus in the club to rule out João Félix and also Carrasco. And of course also Neymar who, again this summer, contacted Barcelona to try to return.
