BARCELONA – Ousmane Dembélé added 100 official games with Barcelona on Saturday in the victory against Alavés, and in this way the price of his signing increased to 135 million euros, when the five million in variables he has to pay became effective for Barça for Borussia Dortmund.
The second most expensive signing in the history of Barça, behind a Philippe Coutinho for whom 145 million euros were paid out of a total of 160 possible depending on the variables and before Antoine Griezmann, whose cost was 120 million (although Atlético de Madrid started a fee in addition to another 10 million), Dembélé reached that first hundred games in his fourth season as a Barça player, suffering from injuries that prevented him always growth.
For the French player, signed in the summer of 2017 after Neymar’s departure to PSG, Barça agreed with Borussia, according to reports from Football Leaks, a fixed initial payment of 105 million euros, plus variables of up to 40 million, divided between the games played, the Champions League titles won by the Barça club and the participation in the top continental competition.
For every 25 games, 5 million euros had to be paid up to a maximum of 20 million, which were met this Saturday, and to this we must add another 10 million divided into two payments of 5 for each participation in the Champions League. Now, to complete these variables, another 10 million euros would be missing, divided into two payments of five for each title of the continental tournament won by the Barça club, which with Dembélé in the team were not achieved.
The winger made his debut for Barcelona on September 9, 2017 in a derby against Espanyol, playing the last 24 minutes replacing Deulofeu and assisting Luis Suárez in what would be the last 5-0 of the day. A week later, however, he suffered a rupture of the femoral biceps tendon in his left thigh in the Getafe field, which removed him for more than three months and was the beginning of a real way of crossing the injuries in the Barça stage.
A total of ten injured, the last in February 2020 that did not allow him to play again throughout the season, marks Dembélé’s stay at Barça, in which he added 534 days off, after losing up to 85 matches due to these physical misfortunes that at that time even led the club to call their representative, suspecting the disordered lifestyle of a player whose contract ends in the summer of 2022.
Author of 25 goals and 19 assists, the arrival of Ronald Koeman on the Barça bench has caused a physical and football regularity never seen before at Dembélé, which has already added 26 matches this season and has tied the last 14 (nine of them as a starter), after scoring 6 goals and distributing five assists.