Barcelona THREATEN to take Dembele to court in 24 hours

FT Desk

• 19 Jan 2022 20:25 GMT
• 3 min read

Barcelona have threatened to take Ousmane Dembele to court if he does not sign a new contract within 24 hours, according to AS.

Journalist Javi Miguel Club of AS reports that Barcelona have given Dembele a deadline of January 20 to accept a new contract.

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If Dembele refuses, Barcelona will take one of three options.

Either they will sell him this month, mutually agree to terminate his contract, or take him to court.

Dembele’s contract at Camp Nou expires at the end of June but he has rejected all offers of a renewal.

Barcelona had been very keen for the winger to renew with manager Xavi and president Joan Laporta persistently praising Dembele in recent months and urging him to pen a new deal.

However, negotiations suddenly ground to a halt at the turn of the year.

Dembele is unhappy that Barcelona were offering him a contract at much-reduced wages while at the same time putting together a huge economic deal in order to sign Ferran Torres from Man City for €55m plus €10m in add-ons.

L’Equipe report that Dembele was demanding a financial package worth an incredible €240 million in order to sign a new contract at Barcelona.

Dembele is requesting a contract worth €40m per year gross for five seasons. He is also demanding a €40m signing-on fee.

Barcelona’s offer is said to be well short of Dembele’s demands and so it looks extremely unlikely that the winger will agree to a new contract in the next day.

If this doesn’t happen, it remains to be seen whether Barcelona follow through with their threat to take him to court or on what grounds they have to do so given Dembele is contracted until the end of the season and doesn’t have to accept a move away until then.

What did Xavi say about Dembele?

Barcelona coach Xavi confirmed earlier on Wednesday that Dembele’s contract situation was serious.

"What I can say is that we are in a complex and difficult situation," the Barcelona coach told reporters.

"The club has decided that if he does not renew, we have to make a decision with him. It's not easy, but Mateu Alemany [sporting director] has been negotiating with his representative for five months and we can't wait any longer, either he renews or we make a decision"

"I have been very honest with him, it is not an easy situation, but a decision must be made. The first thing is the interests of the club, that must be clear.”