Spanish soccer giants FC Barcelona landed Borussia Dortmund attacker, Ousmane Dembélé for an initial €105m (£97m), plus a potential €42m (£38m) in add-ons, making the 20-year-old the second most expensive player in history behind Neymar.
Ousmane will arrive in Barcelona on Sunday and will have a medical on Monday morning before being presented to fans at the Camp Nou later in the day.
The striker has agreed a five-year contract with a €400m buyout clause and will wear the No11 shirt vacated by Neymar. The Brazilian’s exit to Paris Saint-Germain shocked Barça and they made three failed attempts to sign Philippe Coutinho at the same time as trying to prise Dembélé away from Dortmund.
Liverpool have so far refused to budge but Dortmund agreed to Dembélé’s transfer once Barcelona had come close to matching their asking price. Dortmund will make a huge profit on a player they signed from Rennes for £13.5m only a year ago, although the French club’s president told L’Equipe this week they are entitled to around “€30m-€40m” owing to a sell-on clause agreed when Dembélé joined the Bundesliga side.
Dembélé was superb for Dortmund last season as they finished third in the league and won the German Cup with the 20-year-old scoring the first goal in a 2-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Dembélé’s relationship with the club and fans suffered this summer when he went awol after Barcelona made their interest clear. The Dortmund manager, Peter Bosz, who joined from Ajax this summer, said at one point they had not heard from the player and added, somewhat sarcastically, he hoped “nothing serious had happened”.
Dortmund fined Dembélé and suspended him on 10 August and he was not reintegrated into the first-team squad. Dortmund, who announced record turnover of €400m on Friday, won their first league game of the season last weekend and have, in Christian Pulisic, a player who can take Dembélé’s place in the starting XI.
Dortmund, however, are likely to add to their squad before the end of the transfer window with Lyon’s Brazilian Malcolm among their top targets
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