Ousmane Dembele has been one of the youngsters to watch out for this summer and the Dortmund winger is a Barça target as a potential Neymar replacement. However, with Real Madrid also been linked with the French international, things certainly look interesting.
Ousmane Dembele has been one of the standout players of the season in Europe. The 20-year-old French winger had a beyond brilliant campaign with Borussia Dortmund scoring 11 goals and assisting a further 18, so it’s no surprise that clubs want him desperately. He arrived at Signal Iduna Park last summer in search of first team football and Dembele was seen as a raw talent who had a long way to go.
However, under the charge of Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel, the youngster played nearly 54 games for the club and repaid his manager’s faith with brilliant performances time after time. Soon the 20-year-old cemented his place in the starting line-up and alongside French teammate, Kylian Mbappe became one of the football’s most coveted stars.
However, with the world talking about Neymar’s record shattering switch to PSG, Barcelona are on the hunt for someone to restore their attacking trident. The Catalans believe that the French international will be the perfect man to replace Neymar and according to Sky Sports journalist Gianluca Di Marzio, the Camp Nou club have lodged a bid for Ousmane Dembele.
With Neymar’s departure, that means Dembele would slot straight into the starting line-up but there’s still the transfer fee left to haggle over. Being a youngster with immense potential increases the amount that Barcelona will have to pay for the French international.
According to L’Equipe, Ousmane Dembele has already agreed to personal terms with the Camp Nou side, with both clubs left to decide on a transfer fee. Dortmund will, however, not allow the highly rated prospect to leave the club for cheap, which will only further extend the talks between the clubs.
The Signal Iduna Park side is what can be called an economically stable club and thus don’t need to sell their star players. But with both of the El Classico sides extremely interested, the Bundesliga side have so far refused any offer and instead set a fee of nearly 100 million, an amount which is mere peanuts in today’s market.
When asked about the links to Barcelona, Dembele said “Barcelona is a great club and all players would like to play at a club like that. It is a pleasure to be able to see your name on the list of players who Barcelona want.
We’ll be calm and see what happens.”
