Barcelona forward’s agent met Deco to communicate player’s willingness to stay

According to a report from SPORT, Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele’s agent, Moussa Sissoko, met Deco for the first time today.

The meeting was to inform the incoming sporting director that the winger intends to stay at the club and not use the €50 million release clause in his contract to leave this summer.

Dembele signed a new contract with Barcelona last year after a long-running saga. The Frenchman penned only a two-year deal that also included a release clause worth €50 million. Should any club trigger it, half of the fee would go to the player and his agent.

However, Dembele has grown into one of the main pillars of Xavi’s setup over the past 18 months or so. The 26-year-old has been the driving force for the team in attack and has also been relatively injury free.

Dembele himself recently admitted that he feels happy at Barcelona where he enjoys the total faith of manager Xavi. And he is understood to have informed the tactician that he intends to stay at the club and sign a new contract.

Now, the same message has been seemingly conveyed by his agent, Sissoko, who does have a bit of a dodgy reputation from last summer, to Deco.

The Frenchman’s representative has informed the director that his client does not wish to make use of the release clause and secure a transfer this summer.

Barcelona have offered Dembele a new contract until the summer of 2027 and negotiations over an agreement are set to continue over the weeks.

Despite the assurance from the winger and his agent, the club would ideally wish to tie him down to a new deal at the earliest possible so as to get rid of the release clause and the threat of some club triggering it.