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FC Barcelona boss clears stance over Ousmane Dembele's future

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has dismissed the rumours about Ousmane Dembele, insisting the French forward will stay at the club.

FC Barcelona boss clears stance over Ousmane Dembeles future

Barcelona, June 4: Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has dismissed the rumours about Ousmane Dembele, insisting the French forward will stay at the club.

Dembele first caught the eye when he joined Borussia Dortmund from French side Rennes two years back and had a stellar season for Dortmund where he registered 10 goals and a staggering 21 assists on his debut campaign in Germany.

The player also earned national team call-up and his representation in both club and international football soon turned him into one of world football’s most coveted young stars.

Therefore, after losing Neymar to Paris Saint-German for a record fee, Barcelona did not delay to splash the cash for the French man and brought him in August last year for a reported €105 million.

Sadly, though, after arriving at the Catalan side, a left thigh injury sidelined him for three-and-a-half months and later a problem with the same muscle injury saw him ruled out again for the remainder of the year.

Injury concerns saw him losing his first-team spot and in the remainder of last season, he was mostly used as a backup player in the squad as manager Valverde preferred midfielder Paulinho and Sergi Roberto over him in the pecking order.

His lack of game-time made his form go down and reports have been circulating since, that in order to develop his game further the player could seek a new opportunity this Summer.

The Frenchman has been therefore linked with moves to Arsenal, Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain recently as some of the reports suggested the Catalan club wants to loan out the youngster for the next season.

But now dismissing all these rumours, President Bartomeu has insisted Dembele is a player Barcelona want to keep hold of and they are not ready to ship him off anytime soon.

The Barcelona chief further explained that the club has made a big investment on the 21-year-old and he believes the attacker will play much better next season.

"Dembele will go nowhere. He and [Philippe] Coutinho are a big investment for us," Bartomeu said, according to Spanish news outlet Sport.

"They are very important to our project and we expect a lot from them.

"Coutinho in the last four months has been very active in the team but Dembele is a very young player and talented and we expect great things. Next season will be different.

"It's not easy to play at Barca in your first year because the style of football is quite different from at other teams."

Dembele played only 24 matches overall competition last season and scored only four goals, assisting nine. The 21-year-old is now expected to be seen in the French national team at the World Cup and the player will surely be anticipating to show his worth at the biggest stage in the world to prove rank to Barcelona.

Story first published: Monday, June 4, 2018, 17:56 [IST]
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