FC Barcelona saw a lot of activity during the summer transfer window earlier this year, with the club bringing in some notable players while also bidding adieu to quite a few stars.
One of the biggest departures from Barça during the summer was Ousmane Dembele, who was an integral player for Xavi Hernandez.
The Frenchman opted to leave the La Liga champions to join PSG after a €50 million clause in his contract was triggered.
Dembele’s agent used Deco to convince winger to move
Now, a fresh report from Santi Ovalle on SER has provided an update on how Ousmane Dembele’s agent convinced him to leave Barcelona for PSG, by using the appointment of Deco as sporting director.
Dembele had become an integral part of the team under Xavi and was in line to receive a new contract in the summer, given that his previous one would have expired in 2024.
But things changed when PSG came knocking and his agent, Moussa Sissoko, felt that a departure would be the ideal scenario for the winger.
As such, Dembele’s agent was key to convincing him to switch, by telling him how he was going to compete on equal terms against a winger [Raphinha] whose agent is the sporting director.
It must be noted that Deco was not officially appointed as the director when Dembele left, but it was an open secret that he would be succeeding Mateu Alemany.
Given that, at the time Deco was the agent of Raphinha, Sissoko convinced Dembele by saying something along the lines of:
“But how are you going to play? How are they going to treat you well or how are we going to renew if the sporting director who has to renew you happened to be the representative of your direct competition until a month ago?”
Two more factors influenced Dembele’s exit
Apart from the whispers of his agent, Dembele’s departure also came about because he did not see an urgency from Barcelona to renew his contract when PSG came in with an offer to sign him.
According to Santi Ovalle, the French winger would have considered staying if he had received an offer from the club, but Barça did not move.
Another factor was the equal split of the transfer fee between Barcelona and Dembele if any club offered to pay €50 million. The possibility of earning that extra €25 million was also one of the reasons why the French winger ended up packing his bags and heading to PSG.
