Officially.. Barcelona demands Dembele leave within 11 days

Barcelona club director Matteo Alemani has decided the future of French star Othman Dembele in the Catalan team, noting that "Dembele has made it clear that he does not want to stay at the Camp Nou, and therefore he should leave before the end of this month."

Dembele, who joined from Borussia Dortmund in 2017 in a deal worth 140 million euros ($158.9 million), expires next summer and will therefore be able to leave for free.

Barcelona wanted to avoid this scenario in light of the club's large debts of about one billion euros, and hoped to find, with Dembele's departure, an opportunity to revive its financial fund if it was sold during the winter transfer window.

"We started talks with Osman and his agent around July so it's been more than six months," Alemani said on Thursday. "We talked over and over again. Barcelona made different offers."

"We tried to find a way for the player to continue with us but these offers were systematically rejected by his agents and today on January 20, 11 days before the end of the last period of his contract, it seems clear to us that the player does not want to continue at Barcelona and is not committed to a project." Barcelona of the future.

"In this scenario, he and his agents have been told that he must leave immediately because we want players committed to this project, and therefore we hope that the deal will be completed before the 31st of this month," he added.

Dembele was excluded from coach Xavi Hernandez's squad to face Athletic Bilbao in the round of 16 of the Spanish Cup this evening.

"The sporting consequences of all this, as our coach agreed, is that we do not want to have players who are not committed to the project and who do not want to be in Barcelona," Alemani explained.

And he added, "Obviously it's not the club that should decide that, it's the coach, and he's decided that. But he has all of our support and we totally understand that. It seems to us exactly the right approach."

And Xavi said yesterday: "We can't wait any longer. Either he renews the player or we are looking for an exit for the player, there is no other possibility."

He also indicated that he was "not thinking" of leaving Dembele sitting in the stands until the summer. "It's a shame. He's played every possible minute since I became a coach."

Dembele has suffered many injuries in recent years and has not lived up to the ambitions placed on him at the Camp Nou.

However, after losing several prominent players to reduce the club's debts, led by Argentine star Lionel Messi in favor of Paris Saint-Germain last summer, Barcelona were keen to keep Dembele, who is still one of the most talented players in the team, despite the many setbacks that are exposed she has.

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