Ousmane Dembele has agreed personal terms with Paris Saint-Germain, signalling his desire to leave Barcelona, 90min source reports.
It was widely reported last week that, PSG recently reached out to the 26-year-old, who has entered the final 12 months of his contract at Camp Nou.
Barcelona, however, are keen to keep Dembele and have been locked in talks over a new deal for months, but progress is yet to be made. The France international is eyeing a substantial pay rise after agreeing to slash his wages on the short-term deal he inked with Barcelona only last summer.
With no agreement in sight, PSG have made their move in the hope of luring Dembele back to Ligue 1, where he shone with Rennes before his switch to Borussia Dortmund in 2016.
Dembele has a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave for €50m if it is triggered by midnight on Monday, the end of July, after which the clause doubles to €100m. PSG could finalise the signing of Dembele by paying his release clause, and that is an option now personal terms are agreed.
An agreement over a five-year deal has been reached between Dembele and PSG, who have informed Barcelona of the situation. The two clubs have held talks and how they develop in the coming hours will determine whether PSG will need to pay the release clause or come to agreement with Barcelona.
While Barcelona want Dembele to stay, they have also made it clear that they do not want to lose him for nothing next summer and so have reluctantly opened the door to a departure.
The plan at Camp Nou was for Barcelona to part ways with two of their four senior wingers – Dembele, Raphinha, Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres – this summer. Initially, Barcelona wanted to offload Fati and Torres but both have been incredibly reluctant to entertain departures.
The La Liga champions, who still hope to raise more funds through player sales this summer, have been forced into taking a decision over Dembele, whose willingness to agree terms with PSG is expected to impact their next move.
PSG have made their move for Dembele at the same time as they battle with Kylian Mbappe over his future, but the club insist that their interest in the Barcelona star is not directly related.
