Borussia Dortmund have rejected Barcelona’s opening offer for Ousmane Dembélé and suspended the France forward after he missed a training session on Thursday.
Dortmund have said the France forward is “unlikely” to move to Spain unless they receive an improved offer, despite reports in France and Germany suggesting the 20-year-old is on the verge of signing for Barça. A statement from the German club confirmed the offer – understood to be €100m – had been rejected. “There has been a discussion with Barcelona in regards to a possible transfer of Ousmane Dembélé,” read the statement, which was released to the German stock exchange.
“In these talks Barcelona have presented an offer that does not match the extraordinary footballing and otherwise status of the player and also not the current market situation. BVB have turned this offer down.
“And as there is no other offer from Barcelona a transfer should not be expected and is at this moment in time unlikely.”
Dortmund’s sporting director later said Dembélé would be fined and suspended for their next match.
“Ousmane Dembélé missed training without notifying the club and has clearly taken this action consciously. We will obviously sanction him for this,” Michael Zorc said. “We have also suspended the player until after the cup game at the weekend.”
It is understood Dembélé went to Paris on Thursday evening to visit friends and family, and was awaiting news as the clubs continue to negotiate the fee.
Talks have been continuing for several days, with Dortmund insistent they would not accept less than €150m for the player they signed from Rennes last summer for a 10th of that cost. Dembélé was pictured in the official team photo on Wednesday but the Dortmund manager, Peter Bosz, said the player had failed to show up the following day.