FC Bayern Munich is reportedly dealing with a commitment from Barcelona’s attacking player Ousmane Dembele. Reported about it image-Football boss Christian Falk in the podcast “Bayern Insider”.
According to this, Bayern’s sports director Hasan Salihamidzic is a big fan of Dembele, whose contract with Barca expires at the end of June next year. Then the 24-year-old Frenchman would even be available for a free transfer.
Dembele is meanwhile also in the focus of Bayern, as there is currently no progress in the talks about a contract extension from Kingsley Coman. The Frenchman’s contract expires in 2023, and Dembele would be a possible successor.
FC Bayern and Ousmane Dembele: In 2016 it became “very specific”
The former Dortmund resident is, however, already an old acquaintance in the thinking of the Munich residents. Before Dembele moved from Stade Rennes to BVB in 2016, things got “very specific” between him and FCB, as Bayern’s technical director at the time Michael Reschke said Bayern insider betrayed.
“Marco Neppe (then Scout, now technical director at Bayern, editor) and I were in Rennes several times during the 2015/16 season (Dembele’s club at the time, editor) and watched him very closely. We were up interested in signing him, “explained Reschke.
A “very good conversation” then took place with Dembele’s mother, one of the world champion’s key people, continued Reschke. He also flew to Paris with the then CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge to talk to the son of Rennes owner Francois Pinault and Rennes’ then sports director Mikael Silvestre about the framework for a possible transfer.
Bavaria was “on the right track” with Dembele
“We were on the right track,” emphasized Reschke. However, there was one big problem: “The boy just wanted to go to Barcelona. And it was clear to him that the path to Barca would have been blocked if he had moved to Munich.”
Whether the enormous competition at Bayern for Arjen Robben or Franck Ribery, the then 19-year-old Dembele preferred a move from Stade Rennes to Dortmund. He established himself there immediately and went to Barcelona in 2017 after an outstanding season for BVB for 135 million euros.
However, Dembele was not really happy at Barca to this day – also because injuries set him back again and again. In the current season he has only made five competitive appearances to date.
