Barcelona To Offer New Deal To Manchester United, Liverpool’s $125M Target Striker: Report

FC Barcelona are reportedly set to offer a contract extension to Ousmane Dembele, who has also been linked with Manchester United.

Barcelona signed Dembele in the summer of 2017 at a hefty transfer fee of $125 million from Borussia Dortmund. Since Dembele took as many as four seasons to finally live up to that price tag, the player has realized that he must repay the club for their patience and for counting on him, Spanish publication Mundo Deportivo reported.

Dembele’s first three seasons at Camp Nou were either hit by poor form or injuries. In the 2019-20 campaign, the Frenchman managed to make just nine appearances in aggregate for Barcelona. After struggling to settle in at Barcelona, Dembele had been heavily linked with a move to Premier League last summer. Manchester United and Liverpool FC were interested in signing the 23-year-old striker ahead of the current season.

In fact, Manchester United were close to signing Dembele as a back-up option for Jadon Sancho. However, it was reported that Dembele had rejected a move to Old Trafford at the last moment and that thereby prevented Barcelona from signing their 2020 summer target Memphis Depay.

Ahead of the 2021 summer transfer window, even Serie A champions Juventus were interested in signing Dembele from Barcelona as the Turin club is looking to bolster its side for the new campaign, according to the soccer website juvefc.com.

However, Dembele has finally achieved an improved level of continuous fitness as he has made 34 appearances for the club in 2020-21, across all competitions. The 23-year-old Dembele, who clocked his 100th game for Barcelona last month against Deportivo Alaves in La Liga, is in favor of both club’s manager Ronald Koeman and new president Joan Laporta.

Along with Antoine Griezmann, Koeman has given Dembele a lot of responsibility and importance at the top of Barcelona’s attack. Barcelona are aware that Dembele is one of those players with great potential market among their current players and the playmaker’s future with the Catalans will also depend on the terms he’ll be offered by the La Liga giants in the new deal, the Mundo Deportivo report further revealed.

Before winning the recent presidential elections at Barcelona, Laporta had heaped praise on Dembele, saying the club must keep the young striker for many years.

"I'm a big fan of Ousmane Dembele. He is in a spectacular moment of form and mentally he is strong, he has been settling down. He is one of those players for whom you have to try to keep Barça for many years. I always spoke out in favor of Ousmane. You have to take care of great players," Laporta had said in an interview.

In 34 competitive appearances this season for Barcelona, Dembele has netted eight goals and four assists.