Barcelona finish paying €148m transfer fee for PSG star

Robin Bairner

• 12 Sept 2024 14:03 BST
• 3 min read

Barcelona have finally finished paying off the instalments for Ousmane Dembele’s transfer from Borussia Dortmund – despite the France winger having been signed by PSG more than a year ago.

In the wake of Neymar’s departure to PSG in the summer of 2017 for a mammoth €222 million – the biggest transfer fee paid in football history – Barca rushed to sign Dembele from Borussia Dortmund in a deal that was initially worth €105m.

SportBild has revealed that the Blaugrana ended up paying a total of €148m to Dortmund for the winger. Remarkably, the final payment for the deal has just been made, finally seeing the Catalan club clear of this debt seven years after the initial deal was brokered.

READ MORE: Barcelona's 10 worst transfers of all time

Indeed, the transfer as a whole was one of the most catastrophic in Barca’s history.

Although Dembele sparkled at times for the Blaugrana, his career at Camp Nou was pitted by injury problems.

In the end, he forced his way out of the club in 2023 to move to PSG, where he hooked up with his friend Kylian Mbappe for a season before the striker completed a free transfer to Real Madrid.

READ MORE: Latest Barcelona transfer rumours

Dembele's final Barcelona insult

Although Barca recouped €50m for Dembele, this was little over a third of the total fee they paid for him. It is also a far fairer reflection of his true worth; he has an Estimated Transfer Value of €46.3m. In return, he scored 40 goals and created 43 more in 185 matches – a total cost of not far short of €1m per game.

The 27-year-old cut a frustrating figure with Barca as he was often inconsistent with his finishing and final pass, and while that trend continued against PSG, he rubbed salt into the Blaugrana’s wounds as he scored twice and created another as Les Parisiens recorded a 6-4 Champions League success over the Catalans in April 2024.

Dembele’s departure, though costly, has ultimately proven a positive for Barcelona as it has allowed Lamine Yamal the opportunity to come through into the first team and shine.