Four reasons why Ousmane Dembele decided to leave Barcelona – report

Ousmane Dembele’s decision to leave FC Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain came as a shock, considering that the player had himself confirmed that he was happy at the club and was discussing a new contract.

The 26-year-old had become a key cog in the team under Xavi Hernandez and had enjoyed a fine season last time out. All things pointed towards him renewing with the La Liga champions until he decided that a move to PSG would be the best course of action.

Dembele is already in Paris to finalise his €50 million move from Barça and an official announcement could arrive today itself, with the player set to sign a five-year contract with the Ligue 1 champions.

Ahead of the move, Sergi Capdevila of SPORT has come up with an exclusive report outlining the reasons why Dembele decided to leave Barcelona this summer.

1. The pressures applied in 2022

The Dembele contract saga was a major talking point last year as Barcelona and the player’s representative haggled over renewal terms and the negotiations dragged on for months together.

During that period, there was a time when Barça decided to axe Dembele from the squad in order to force him to accept the terms being offered and the report claims that mistrust started to grow from that point itself.

Xavi managed to smooth things over and reintegrate him back into the squad and the winger starred in the second half of the 2021/22 season, eventually leading to a two-year renewal, but the cracks had started to appear.

2. Deco’s arrival

Another reason behind Dembele’s decision to leave is supposedly the arrival of Deco, formerly the agent of Raphinha, as the sporting director of the club. The report states that the Frenchman’s camp did not welcome the move.

The fact that Deco did not meet the squad and then failed to attend the meeting scheduled to discuss Dembele’s renewal also did not sit well with the player’s entourage, although it must be noted that the new director was away in Turkey at the time to discuss Arda Guler’s signing.

3. Rumours of him being offered to PSG in deal for Mbappe

There was a brief period last month when Barcelona were linked with a shock move for Kylian Mbappe, with reports suggesting that the club would offer Dembele and Gavi to PSG as part of the operation.

Having heard about that unsettled Dembele, with the report claiming that it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Frenchman is understood to have asked about it to Xavi during their meeting and the manager informed him there was nothing to it, but the damage had been done.

4. Feeling of mistrust from various figures within the club

The final major reason behind Dembele’s decision to move on, as per the report, is that the player felt that he did not enjoy the full trust of several members within the club.

And the Frenchman felt that if his renewal was delayed he could once again have to go through being left out of the squad as the club might look to force him to accept their conditions.

As such, he decided to sign for PSG, without any pressure from his agent, as has been speculated in some circles. Dembele’s salary will not be three times of what he earned at Barça either.