Ousmane Dembele looks set to become a Paris Saint-Germain player this week, after PSG triggered the €50m release clause in his Barcelona contract, and agreed personal terms with the French winger.
His contract scenario is interesting because it is a crucial part of the reason that Dembele has left Barcelona, despite seemingly being happy and settled on their pre-season tour of the US – a tour in which he contributed heavily, including scoring a wonderful goal against Real Madrid.
Dembele had one year remaining on his Barcelona deal, and was reportedly locked in negotiations to increase his salary, something that the Barcelona hierarchy was reluctant to consider because of Dembele’s dismal injury record whilst at the club.
PSG have no such qualms, reportedly, and so are willing to offer Dembele the terms he wants in order to bring him back to his homeland, as part of a major squad overhaul in the French capital this summer.
How much will Dembele earn at Paris Saint-Germain?
According to Boardroom, Dembele’s contract at Barcelona last season was worth around $12.8m per year, or approximately €11.7m when converted to Euros.
Reports around a potential renewal of Dembele’s contract suggested that Barcelona’s offer was around €5-6m short of what the player wanted to lock down a new deal.
It makes sense then that PSG’s contract offer is suggested to be worth around €20m per year, according to both Forbes Magazine and French newspaper L’Equipe.
That would translate at around €385,000 per week, making it a substantial increase on what Dembele was earning at Barcelona, and there are also reportedly around €5m a year in potential bonuses on top of that.
How does Dembele’s salary compare to other PSG players?
It’s a figure that would make Dembele amongst the top earners in Paris, especially if the club manage to sanction the exit of Kylian Mbappe before the end of this transfer window.
In fact, it would only be Mbappe and Neymar whose contracts would dwarf that of Dembele, making him the third-highest earner at the club – ahead of free-agent new signings Lucas Hernandez and Milan Skriniar, club-captain Marquinhos, and key components Achraf Hakimi and Marco Verratti in the club’s earning stakes.
It adds up – Dembele on his day is one of the most entertaining, exciting players in world football, a nightmare for opposition defenders with his bipedal ability and mastery of ball manipulation.
At 26, he should be coming into the prime of his career, and he has often performed best in his homeland whilst wearing the blue of France. Given PSG supporters have struggled to get behind big-money stars, and considering the potential departure of Mbappe this summer, bringing Dembele in makes plenty of sense.
There remains a risk though, on the amounts the winger is being paid. His injury record for Barcelona was a real hindrance to ever finding real consistency, limiting the Frenchman to flashes of brilliance across small spurts of game time.
Since joining in 2017, Dembele has missed nearly 800 days through injury – over a third of his time at Barcelona, including 120 games where he’s been absent. Many of these injuries have been recurring as well, most worryingly a real tendency to serious strains and tears in his hamstrings.
