Barcelona boss Xavi insists Ousmane Dembele is happy at the club despite suggestions Paris Saint-Germain could trigger his release clause in the next 48 hours.
For a long time, the 26-year-old struggled to live up to his €145million (£124m) price tag after making the switch from to Camp Nou in 2017 and was repeatedly linked with moves away.
But he has grown into a much more important player since Xavi took over – despite continued injury issues – and averaged a goal or assist every 118 minutes last season en route to winning La Liga.
He was on the scoresheet on Saturday night in Barca’s friendly win over Clasico rivals , collecting a brilliant pass from Ilkay Gundogan from a smart free-kick routine before firing into the far corner.
In a fiery contest in Texas that produced 27 fouls, Barcelona dug in after Dembele’s 15th-minute strike before late goals from Fermin Lopez and Ferran Torres wrapped up a 3-0 win.
After the game, much of the talk centred on the future of Dembele amid .
The Frenchman has a €50m (£43m) release clause in his contract which is only active until the end of this month, meaning any swoop from the Ligue 1 champions would need to happen before midnight on Monday.
While Xavi did not rule out the possibility of Dembele leaving in the coming days, he appeared relaxed about the situation and is confident the winger is happy to remain at the club.
Asked about Dembele’s situation and the PSG links, Xavi said: ‘We will see, in the transfer window you never know.
‘I see Ousmane as happy at Barca. If there’s something [in the PSG links] he will tell us. For now he’s here and he’s happy.’
Having lost Lionel Messi already this summer and with contract rebel Kylian Mbappe potentially following him out the door, PSG are eager to add a new top-quality attacker to their ranks.
Barca’s win over Real, meanwhile, was their first victory of pre-season, with Xavi saying: ‘We know how to goes, one day we are a disaster and today we are the best club in the world!
‘That’s the Barca environment and that’s who we are as Culers. We are neither one thing nor the other. We had some good moments [vs Real] but we need to keep getting better.’
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