FC Barcelona’s French international winger Ousmane Dembele has flown to Paris to complete his move to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
Dembele was filmed at Barcelona Airport ahead of a private flight to Paris on Thursday morning, following Barcelona’s return from their North American tour, which ended with a 1-0 win against AC Milan in Las Vegas.
Following that game, coach Xavi Hernandez admitted the 26-year-old had activated a €50 million release clause to allow him to hold talks with the PSG, who views him as a key player to cover for the possible departure of Kylian Mbappe.
“I’ll be clear: Dembele has asked to leave, he has said that he has an offer from PSG and that they have spoken to him. He was very clear about it,” said Xavi.
The coach said it was a “personal decision” from the player and “we can’t do anything about it. I feel really bad about it because we have looked after him a lot to ensure he was happy and could continue to make a difference, but now he has this offer and he has said he wants to go,” Xavi added.
Barcelona is currently being linked with Manchester City’s Portuguese full-back Joao Cancelo and is also tracking his compatriot and clubmate Bernardo Silva, although the club will need to either sell players or activate more economic levers in order to inscribe new signings Ilkay Gundogan, Inigo Martinez and Oriol Romeu into their squad before the start of the season.
