A decisive deadline not only ends at midnight for Kylian Mbappé. Will Paris St. Germain make the breakthrough with Ousmane Dembelé today?
In current professional football, people have become accustomed to a lot of things, so for now it is quite normal that Ousmane Dembelé will be worth twice as much at 0 o’clock as he was a minute earlier. According to consistent media reports, the former Dortmund player has an exit clause of 50 million euros in his contract with FC Barcelona, which will increase to 100 million euros at the turn of the month. The coming hours will be correspondingly exciting for him – and for Paris St. Germain.
There is little doubt that Dembelé would like to move from Barça to PSG a year before his contract expires. But whether the French champions – or, as is customary in Spain, Dembelé himself – will actually make use of the exit clause is currently uncertain. “L’Equipe” and other media report that the 26-year-old has officially asked Barça for permission to speak to PSG, but would prefer an agreement between the two clubs, i.e. without the clause.
That would buy the Parisian officials a little more time. It is even possible that Dembelé will remain part of Barça’s US tour for the time being, which includes a test match against AC Milan on Wednesday (5am CEST). However, a verbal agreement between the French international and PSG is said to already exist.
Mbappé: way out of loan deal?
While Dembelé’s departure from Barcelona after six years would be a heavy blow for coach and sponsor Xavi on the one hand, but on the other hand would improve the still tense financial situation in one fell swoop, PSG could use the signing to push ahead with the upheaval in the attack. Lionel Messi is gone, Neymar’s future is still not entirely clear – and Kylian Mbappé may soon be gone.
Also until midnight tonight, the goalscorer can theoretically decide to extend his contract by one year until 2025 after all and end the dispute with his long-time club that has been going on for weeks, but that is unlikely to happen. Instead, there are increasing rumours that Mbappé could go on loan to another top club for a year before moving to Real Madrid in 2024. Liverpool FC are among the candidates.
PSG boss Nasser Al-Khelaifi had made it clear to Mbappé that he must either extend his contract until the end of July or find a new club this summer. Perhaps PSG will make a decisive decision tonight – or, and this would be typical of modern professional football, nothing will happen at all for the time being.
