Arya News - Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund take each other on tomorrow night – two teams that seldom meet in the Champions League.However, there have been various transfer dealings involving these two teams in...
Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund take each other on tomorrow night – two teams that seldom meet in the Champions League.
However, there have been various transfer dealings involving these two teams in the past. The most significant one came in 2017 when Barça roped in Ousmane Dembele for a whopping figure.
Now, as Barcelona and Dortmund gear up for an important clash, a recent report from SPORT has offered a comprehensive report on Barça’s signing of Dembele and how the deal eventually came to be.
Barça had eyes on Dembele since 2015
The report has pointed out that Barcelona had eyes on Dembele early, spotting him in 2015 when he was still at Rennes.
Robert Fernandez, then technical secretary, travelled to France and was immediately impressed. Thanks to this strong impression, Barcelona immediately gave the green light to chase the Frenchman.
Fernandez even went on to approach Dembele, but their efforts were thwarted by Moussa Sissoko, who had just become the player’s new agent. The report points out that Barça had a hard time establishing a connection with Sissoko.
Dembele was on Barcelona’s radar since 2015 (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)
Barcelona, therefore, stalled the deal, thus allowing Borussia Dortmund to swoop in and sign the forward for a fee of just €35 million.
The Catalan club kept in touch with the player and made a verbal agreement to revisit the signing in a few years, when the legendary trident of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar began to phase out.
This eventually happened in 2017 when Neymar joined Paris Saint-Germain, thus leaving a gaping hole in the Barcelona frontline.
Barça debated between signing Kylian Mbappe or Dembele but eventually backed Robert Fernandez’s recommendation.
The negotiations with Dortmund CEO Hans Joachim-Watzke were far from straightforward especially due to the fact that the German had strong connections with Real Madrid.
Despite the continued efforts from Barça, progress was slow. That was until Dembele decided to take matters into his own hands, skipping pre-season and demanding an exit.
This escalated tension, but also forced Dortmund’s hand. The transfer was eventually finalized for a fixed fee of €105 million, with €40 million in add-ons based on appearances and team achievements.