Manchester United and Barcelona are in ‘advanced negotiations’ over Ousmane Dembélé. Duncan Castles, journalist before The Times and the Daily Record, claims that the Red Devils want to take over the 23-year-old wing attacker on a rental basis. Barcelona is willing to cooperate with Dembélé’s departure, but would actually prefer to sell him.

Barcelona has set the asking price for Dembélé at one hundred million euros. The Catalans are not negative about Manchester United’s proposal to take over the Frenchman on a rental basis, under one condition: that a mandatory purchase option be included in the agreement. Barcelona’s willingness to cooperate with Dembele’s departure has everything to do with the club’s financial situation. Manchester United is willing to take over the attacker’s full salary by lease.

Dembélé earns a net annual salary of six million euros at Barcelona, ​​so a lot of room would be made in the salary house if he leaves temporarily or otherwise. The 21-time French international, who continues France Football is also linked to Liverpool, is not the first choice of Manchester United, because the Red Devils would have preferred to strengthen themselves with Jadon Sancho. Sebastian Kehl, director at his employer Borussia Dortmund, emphasizes on Tuesday in conversation with Ruhr Nachrichten once again that the English attacker will ‘just’ stay in Germany.

“Jadon has trained well and professionally. He is happy that he can play football. Of course he will one day leave for a new challenge, but he is now happy at Borussia Dortmund and we are happy with him. He is here and stays here. It was an important statement from the club, we have a responsibility. Without Jadon, this team is worse ”, says Kehl. Partly because of this, Manchester United now seems to have shifted attention to Dembele.

Barcelona brought in Dembélé in the summer of 2017 for 138 million euros as the successor to Neymar who left for Paris Saint-Germain, but the attacker who came from Borussia Dortmund was never able to fully meet the high expectations, partly due to various injuries. So far, Dembélé has played 74 official games for the Catalans, scoring 19 goals and 17 assists. His contract with Barcelona will continue until mid-2022.