BARCELONA – Ousmane Dembélé added 100 official matches with Barcelona on Saturday, in the win against Alavés, and in this way the price of his signing rose to 135 million euros, when the five million variables he had to pay became effective for the Barça club. Borussia Dortmund.
The second most expensive acquisition in Barça’s history, behind a Philippe Coutinho for whom 145 million euros have been paid out of a total of 160 possible, depending on the variables and before Antoine Griezmann, whose costs were 120 million (although Atlético de Madrid started a payment not counting another 10 million), Dembélé made it to those first 100 games of his fourth season as a Barça player, burdened by injuries that always hindered his growth.
For the French player, signed in the summer of 2017 after Neymar’s departure to PSG, Barça agreed with Borussia, according to Football Leaks reports, a fixed initial payment of 105 million euros, plus variables up to 40 million across games played. . , Champions League titles won by the Barça club and participation in the best continental competition.
For every 25 matches, 5 million euros had to be paid up to a maximum of 20 million, which were fulfilled this Saturday, and to this we have to add another 10 million, divided into two payments of 5 for each entry in the Champions League. 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 were not achieved with Dembele in the squad.
The winger made his Barcelona debut on 9 September 2017 in a derby against Espanyol, playing the last 24 minutes as a replacement for Deulofeu and assisting Luis Suarez in what would be the last 5-0 of the day. A week later, however, he suffered a fracture of the biceps femoris tendon in his left thigh in the Getafe field, which left him out for more than three months and that was the start of a real road from the crotch of injuries in his Barça -stage.
A total of ten injuries, the last of which in February 2020 that prevented him from playing the entire season, mark Dembélé’s endurance at Barça, adding 534 days off, having lost up to 85 games due to these physical accidents. even led the club to call up its representative at the time because they suspected the disorderly lifestyle of a player whose contract expires in the summer of 2022.
Author of 25 goals and 19 assists, Ronald Koeman’s arrival on the Barça bench has created a physical and football regularity not seen before in Dembélé, who has already added 26 games this season and linked the last 14 (of which nine as a starter), who had scored 6 goals and distributed five assists.