Barcelona nearly ready to tackle Ousmane Dembele's contract renewal

Barça are now preparing to tackle the final negotiations to renew Ousmane Dembélé's contract, a player whose deal expires in 2024 and for whom there is starting to be some noise on the market. The Blaugrana want to seal the continuity of Sergio Busquets first and, immediately after, they will talk to Dembélé to try to convince him to extend.

Ousmane Dembélé is absolutely essential for Xavi Hernández, the coach who has managed to improve the Frenchman's performance and help him play regularly with practically no injuries until now. Dembélé has a very good relationship with the coach and feels at ease at Camp Nou, but his renewal was short-term and Barça are trying to prevent offers for him this summer or him re-entering the final year of his contract without having renewed.

The two sides have been in constant contact over the past few months in the hope of formalising a decisive summit. Dembélé already knows that Barça are counting on him for the future and that they want to renew him, but he hopes that everything will be finalised with a financial proposal that can satisfy him.

The big handicap is the salary cap. Ousmane already had to accept a frozen renewal contract last summer and there is little prospect of him being able to improve his wage much now either. The idea is either to try to make another short extension while keeping the clause low or to make a longer contract with progressive increases. The two parties will have to find the contract they are most comfortable with for his continuity.

Dembélé has an exit clause of 50 million euros and, after showing his physical reliability, he could have important proposals this summer because his price is low. In France, PSG are already talking again and in England there are several teams interested. Barça's idea is to avoid reaching the summer with so much danger lurking.