11:37 – The contract negotiations between FC Barcelona and Ousmane Dembélé have been very difficult for months. The cause of this seems to be known now. The French attacker, whose contract expires next summer, is said to have absurd salary demands.
Journalist Florian Plettenberg reported this on behalf of the German Sky Sport. He wrote on Twitter how trainer Xavi was “almost speechless” after hearing Dembele’s demands. He would ask for a gross salary of no less than 43 million euros per year, plus seven million euros in bonuses. The financial situation of the club is known and the chance that Barcelona will cough up the amount is therefore small.
For some time now, Barcelona has been trying to extend Dembélé’s expiring contract. After the departures of the likes of Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann, he is the one who should be leading the way. Now that in 2022 there is still no clarity about his future, it seems more and more that he will embark on another adventure. Reports about his salary demands reinforce those speculations.
This week there was a lot of talk about the salaries of the Barca players anyway. The sports world-journalist Lluís Canut threw the salaries of various players into the world, with Dembélé being named as one of the big earners with an amount of twelve million euros. The question is to what extent that is correct. FC Barcelona denied the reports and Piqué – according to Canut the absolute big earner (28 million) – even released his actual salary.
Also read: FC Barcelona furious after wage leaks, Pique shares salary slip
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