Barcelona denies that contract negotiations with Ousmane Dembele are going well. On Thursday morning, transfer market expert Fabrizio Romano wrote that the attacker would like to extend his expiring contract, but Barcelona knows Mundo Deportivo, haven’t heard from Dembele or his agent, Moussa Sissoko for ten days. The club would have given the Frenchman until Christmas to tie the knot.
Dembélé’s contract expires in mid-2022 and Sport recently wrote about a ‘lost cause’ regarding his stay. The attacker would like to make a big jump in financial terms and therefore be open to offers from other top clubs. On Thursday, however, Romano reported that Dembele would have told his agent he wanted to sign until June 2024, while at the same time he had turned down an offer from Newcastle United. For Barcelona, Romano’s coverage comes as a surprise.
Newcastle approached Ousmane Dembélé and his agents weeks ago to make a proposal – but the feeling is still optimistic for his contract extension with Barcelona. ?? #FCB #NUFCBarça are confident to reach the final agreement in the next days, and Xavi is pushing to keep Ousmane.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) Dec 23, 2021
“Barcelona is surprised by the reports that an agreement has already been reached with Dembélé,” reports Mundo Deportivo. “That surprise is simply due to the fact that the club has not heard anything about a contract extension from the player or his agent for at least ten days.” The Catalan sports newspaper, which follows Barcelona closely, says it has contacted Sissoko, but the agent does not want to say a word about the matter.
Dembele has long been plagued by injuries since his arrival from Borussia Dortmund in 2017. Partly because of this, the 27-time international has so far only made 125 appearances for the club, in which he scored 30 times and provided 22 assists. This season the counter stands at four games, in which Dembélé was not yet able to find the net. Nevertheless, according to Romano, Xavi would insist on keeping the 24-year-old attacker on board.