Dembele's agents meet with Xavi & reiterate desire to stay at Barça

SPORT EXCLUSIVE

Dembele's agents meet with Xavi & reiterate desire to stay at Barça

| sport

The forward is out of contract in 2022 but has not yet accepted any of Barça's offers

Moussa Sissoko and Marco Lichsteiner, Ousmane Dembele's agents, met on Wednesday with Xavi Hernandez to transmit to the Barcelona coach that the French player does want to extend his Camp Nou contract beyond 2022.

During the meeting, which lasted two hours, Sissoko and Lichsteiner let Xavi know that Dembele is completely committed to the project and proud to be a Barça player. He wants to help the team achieve its objectives. They reiterated that his commitment cannot be questioned and that he's 100 percent focused on Barça.

In reality, this message had already been relayed to Xavi by Dembele himself but on this occasion it was the agents who were face to face with the Barça coach to clarify their stance.

The meeting, therefore, turned around the negotiations that had appeared to be over between Dembele and the club, who had told the player to leave this month. But in this meeting with Xavi, Sissoko and Marco Lichsteiner made it clear that Dembele's desire is to stay and that he's only working with that in his mind.

Ousmane Dembélé, durante un entrenamiento

| AFP

After so much tension between the two parties, the agents wanted to cool things over to negotiate in normal conditions. Xavi, who has always shown his admiration for Dembele, let them know of the need to find a solution quickly, whatever that is. Either he renews or he looks for a new club.

Barça's reaction has been swift. Hours later, the club contacted the agents to ask them to find a way to unblock the situation. Both agents plan to stay in Barcelona until a satisfactory solution is found.

The movement made by the two agents represents an important turn in the negotiations with Dembele, a case that was on the way to becoming entrenched. In reality, the club was waiting for his departure to release wages and bring in Alvaro Morata, but the change of pace offered by the agents opens the door to Ousmane's continuity. Now we have to see if a good agreement can be reached for both parties.

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