Just when we thought Ousmane Dembele’s story couldn’t get any more strange, it’s taken another weird turn. The Frenchmen, who spent the last year burning bridges with Barcelona and trying to score a big-money contract elsewhere, has just signed a new two-year deal to return to the Catalan club!We say ‘return’ rather than ‘stay’ because Dembele’s been formally unattached for the past two weeks. He’s been at Barca for five frustrating years, departed, and spent two weeks as a free agent before agreeing to re-sign with the Camp Nou club.##NAJAVA_MECA_6505557##His talks with the club seemed like they were going nowhere in the past six months. Dembele’s agent Moussa Sissoko demanded that his client receive a significant wage hike, from $11 million to $20 million net, plus a truckload of bonuses and commissions for the agent. Barcelona were ready to freeze the former Stade Rennais youngster out of the team to punish his agent’s greed. But coach Xavi did everything he could to convince the player that staying at Barcelona would be the best career move for him – even if it’s for a 40 per cent lower salary. And the Frenchman was actually listening. He took his fate in his own hands and made a decision to stay put and finish what he started. Should he perform at a high level, the bonuses included in the new contract would get him to about the same amount he’d been earning in the past five seasons. So, it’s all up to him.DEMBÉLÉ 2⃣0⃣2⃣4⃣ pic.twitter.com/M1F4ckercJ— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) July 14, 2022 Dembele was 20 years old when he joined Barca in 2017 from Borussia Dortmund in a mammoth $154 million switch. But despite his auspicious start, he never quite managed to get into his full stride due to an unfortunate string of different injuries. In total, the French winger has played 150 games in his five years at Barcelona, earned a reputation as a fantastic assist-provider, but also an immature kid with a big ego and a bunch of personal problems. But his performances under Xavi’s guidance gave Barcelona fans hope that they could still see their expensive recruit deliver the goods in a Blaugrana shirt.
