Barcelona’s renewal offer for Dembele has expired, club looking at three possible solutions

Six months after putting forward the first offer of renewal for Ousmane Dembele, Barcelona have finally pulled it off the table, reports Gerard Romero.

Dembele was initially leaning towards signing Barça’s contract but was influenced by his agent Moussa Sissoko, who advised him to demand a ludicrous salary of €40 million annually along with nearly €40 million in bonuses.

The Barcelona administration believes that Sissoko does not have any offers from any other team for Dembele.

The club, as Sporting Director Mateu Alemany announced a few weeks ago, will look to sell the World Cup winner in the winter, even if it means taking a huge loss on the books. Chelsea are reportedly leading the race for his signature.

Barcelona can only reach an agreement with another club under one of three conditions if they want to sign him.

The first option is to resort to a player swap. For a while, Juventus looked ready to take in Dembele for Paulo Dybala, whose contract also expires in June. This way, both clubs can get in a new player without having to lose another for free.

The second is to slash the asking price for the winger, and let the buying club pay it later. While the ‘on-books’ loss will be huge, given he was signed for €130 million, Barça can, at the very least, take his salary off the wage bill.

Finally, they can offload him for free in the winter, provided the buying club takes over his salary, or a part of it for the rest of the season. This option would obviously be the last resort.

Less than three days left before the transfer window calls curtains, but a lot to do for Barcelona.