Dembélé won’t activate his €50 million release clause, but still wants to move to PSG

In the last few minutes, it’s been revealed by multiple journalists that on the order of Ousmane Dembele, his release clause of €50 million won’t be activated today. However, after the French winger confirmed that he would like to move to Paris, he’s asking that PSG and Barcelona now negotiate a fair price for his transfer.

If you’ve been following the Dembélé sage online today you’d have seen conflicting reports throughout a number of media publications. However, now we seem to have one consistent theme which is being reported in different ways by different journalists.

Ousmane Dembélé still wants to leave Barcelona for PSG, but he wants to do so in the right way. The right way for him is for the teams to negotiate a fair price, which in turn will lead to Barcelona being able to maintain a higher proportion of the fee.

The financial details of the Dembele to PSG move

Under the conditions of his €50 million release clause, Dembélé himself would have been entitled to €25 million, and while there were reports he was willing to allow Barca to keep some of that, the preference for the La Liga champions is to be able to negotiate a higher fee.

At midnight CET tonight, that €50 million release clause magically transforms into a €100 million release clause, and while nobody expects Barca to generate €100 million for Dembélé, they could negotiate a price closer to €60 million. Even if they sell him for €50 million, it’ll be a much better deal with Dembele not pocketing 50% of the fee.

All of this has a knock-on effect under the La Liga fair play regulations. If Barca can pocket the entire fee close to €50 million, they’ll have €25 million to spend in the transfer market.

Under the new La Liga regulations, teams in excess of the league-imposed spending limit can use 50% of any incoming to sign new players.

If that player accounts for more than 5% of their spending limit, that 50% becomes 60%. It’s unclear if Dembélé reaches this threshold.

Losing Dembele is a tough blow for Barcelona, just over two weeks before their La Liga campaign kicks off, but if there is one universal truth across every team sport in existence, it’s pointless trying to keep players whose hearts are elsewhere.