After a recent succession of heroic performances, Dembele's renewed contract stay is back in the light of day. Spanish journalist Herard Romero and the Daily Sport confirmed that Barça club football director Alemani has travelled to Marrakech to meet Dembele's agent, Sissoko, to reopen negotiations for the player's contract extension. Before that, due to the overcharge of Dembele's agent, the exhausted Barca had announced that they would not negotiate with Dembele again, and even pressed him in the stands until the end of the season, but the manager Xavier continued to reuse it.
Dembele has not failed to live up to his mentor's expectations and has performed extremely well in recent times, so far, although he has only played 22 games and scored 2 goals in all competitions, he has delivered 10 assists, including 1 goal and 10 assists in 13 La Liga games. Ranked 8th on the top five league assists list in 2022.
In the 4-0 away game against Real Madrid, Dembele scored an assist twice in the first half, and also delivered a game-high three key passes, scoring a high score of 8.5 points after the game. In last weekend's 1-0 home win over Sevilla, he also gave Pedri a winning assist. In the 89 minutes of the game, Dembele had three successful breakthroughs and seven key passes were the highest in the game. Such an outstanding performance made the Barca fans, who already hated him deeply, applaud.
Barca fans know the ball after all, dembele's personal ability is already very good, speed, dribbling and passing are all exquisite, and they have world-class performances on the left and right flanks. Compared with him, Traore, who is also extremely fast and physically energetic, is a track and field athlete. In fact, in the past few seasons, although Dembele has been plagued by injuries and belongs to the ultra-low standby mode of two balls in the middle of the year, in a limited time, his performance has also impressed Barca fans, and he has been nicknamed "King of Fragrant Balls". He is also recognized as Neymar's best successor, of course, provided there are no injuries.
Xavi's love for Dembele is not hidden, in his tactical system, a good winger is essential, but now Barca can not provide him with much help, Sterling, Rashford and other players are not a problem in terms of strength, but Barca can not afford to buy, and eventually can only get him a Traore and still rented. Therefore, Harvey always insisted on giving Dembele a chance to play, because he knew Dembele's strength and needed Dembele's strength. Thankfully, it now looks like the decision is a win-three, with Xavi getting the winger he wants, Dembele having a chance to prove himself and Barca having a chance to rehaul their old friendship with Dembele.
However, although both sides are currently interested, it is not easy to truly agree on a contract renewal. Dembele has reached a verbal agreement with Paris Grande to join after the season and is still valid. The latter certainly gave him a promise of salary, matching the salary given by The Greater Paris was an impossible task for Barca. According to the latest news, Dembele agent Sissoko proposed an annual salary of 20 million euros after tax in a meeting with Barca director Alemani, although this is half down from the 40 million that the lion opened before, showing some sincerity, but it is still not something that Barca can afford. It's not that Dembele isn't worth the price, it's that Barca really can't get it, after all, their salary caps are negative in the summer.
However, Dembele's belief in Harvey and Mbappe's possible choice to renew his contract with Paris Grande increase the likelihood that he will remain at Camp Nou. With just over two months left until June 30, it is worth looking forward to what will happen.