Dembélé, the free agent who lives linked to Barcelona

Dembélé, in Barcelona's recent friendly match in Australia. Steve Christo - Corbis (Corbis via Getty Images)

Ousmane Dembélé lives the same way he plays, so you never know where he comes from or where he is going, or how he will come out of the last dribble, ambidextrous as he is.

A consistent personality, after all, with the free agent status that he acquired on Thursday when he finished his contract with Barcelona.

The last time he opened his mouth was a week ago when a fan asked him at a traffic light to find out if he would sign for Chelsea and his response was: "I'm happy at Barça."

The image of docility that the 25-year-old French winger offers is surprising if you remember his rebellion at Rennes and Borussia Dortmund when he forced his transfer to the Camp Nou.

Now he doesn't want to leave Barça.

The problem is that the club has no money and the player's market price has been devalued after being offered to half the Premier.

The need may lead both parties to renew if a buyer does not appear beforehand by his agent, Moussa Sissoko.

Dembélé's intermediary is as eager to send Barça out for a walk as the club wants to lose sight of Sissoko and the player after five seasons of misunderstandings, signed for 135 million in 2017. The technical secretariat has already planted itself in the winter market , when he urged Dembélé to leave the Camp Nou in January, and now there are advisers to the club, such as the former Barça player Deco, who are committed to signing his client Raphinha, the Brazilian striker for Leeds.

There is, however, an exception that bets on Dembélé, and it is Xavi, the coach, as has already happened with Koeman, Quique Setién and Valverde.

Everyone was bewitched by the physical and technical quality of a footballer as virtuous with the ball as he was clumsy in making decisions, to the point that he is remembered more for the non-goal he did not score against Liverpool in the 94th minute —it would have been 4-0—than for his 32 goals in the 149 games with Barça.

Xavi aspires to achieve with Dembélé the same as Ancelotti with Vinicius.

The Barça coach distrusts the signings that the board can achieve and, meanwhile, asks the player for patience, he prefers to have him lose him, reiterative in his plan: you can only let a footballer leave or transfer if you have a replacement, a request that is worth the same for Dembélé that for Frenkie de Jong.

So Barça and Dembélé play a card game in which it is not known which of the two is bluffing;

the only thing that transpired is that the board offers the striker a contract for 6.5 million per year, plus 1.5 for variables, without commissions or signing bonus —as announced

, Gerard Romero's

channel— , half of what he perceived, a proposal that was laughed at by Sissoko.

He now has to act therefore Dembélé's agent.

Some do not trust the others and there is no other choice but to refer to the Xavi-Dembélé alliance.

The player has corrected himself since the arrival of the Catalan coach: although he has only scored two goals, he has given 13 assists in the last season;

he has more continuity after avoiding injuries – he adds 13 that have made him miss 102 games – and has reunited with Aubameyang, a teammate in Dortmund.

And the coach says that with dedication Dembélé will become a number 1.

Working means acquiring routines and habits that escape those who like to improvise like Dembélé.

Sometimes he gets confused with the schedules and days of training —he is not usually punctual—, he does not eat and sleep as a soccer player should — “he is able to eat just as well on the floor as at the table”, warns an employee— and he does not he attends to the media —"he doesn't know how to speak", Messi refuted Mateu Lahoz when he expelled Dembélé for insulting him in a Barça-Seville match.

The legend assures that Bartra advised Barça not to sign Dembélé when they both met at Dortmund.

The dribblers live by cheating and, therefore, many prefer Raphinha over Dembélé.

One is already known and the other is not.

It happens that there is not a penny and it is not ruled out that Dembélé signs a new contract as it happened with Sergi Roberto.

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