Ousmane Dembele to receive larger portion of €50m transfer fee ahead of PSG move: Reports
Ousmane Dembele will receive a large cut of the €50 million that Paris Saint-Germain are set to pay to secure his signing, according to L'Equipe. The 26-year-old had been heavily linked with an exit this summer and is now on the verge of completing a move to PSG.
The 26-year-old signed a two-year extension with Barcelona last summer. However, the deal included a stipulation whereby his release clause would be lowered to €50 million for the month of July 2023.
Barcelona initially signed Dembele from Borussia Dortmund for a whopping €135 million. As such, the €50 million fee itself represents a huge loss for the Catalans. To make matters worse for Barcelona, they were not in a position to pay a loyalty bonus to Dembele when he signed the new deal last summer.
As a result, they agreed that Dembele and his agent would take 50% of any subsequent transfer fee. Suffice it to say, the Catalans will only receive €25 million from the €50 million that PSG are paying to secure his services.
The rest of the money goes to Dembele and his agent. In total, that represents a loss of €110 million for Barca on the Frenchman.
Ousmane Dembele agrees five-year deal with Paris Saint-Germain
According to Fabrizio Romano, Dembele and PSG have reached a verbal agreement over a five-year deal. The Parisians have been trying to engineer a move for a while now and have now finally managed to convince the player.
PSG only have until midnight to finalize the deal before Dembele's release clause returns to €100 million. As such, they are in a race against time to finalize the transfer.
The news is likely to disappoint Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez who was hoping that the Frenchman would reject PSG's interest and stay put at the Spotify Camp Nou.
Xavi had sounded optimistic about Dembele kicking on at Barcelona when quizzed about the same. Following Barca's 3-0 win over Real Madrid in a friendly last Saturday, he said:
"We will see, in the transfer window you never know.
"I see Ousmane as happy at Barca. If there’s something [in the PSG links] he will tell us. For now he’s here and he’s happy."