Xavi’s plans for this season were significantly disturbed when Ousmane Dembele decided to leave FC Barcelona and join Paris Saint Germain in the last summer transfer window.
The Frenchman had no plans to leave the club at the end of the last season and had also communicated this to the Barcelona head coach. However, the winger did end up leaving the club, and his transfer took place in a very short time.
Dembele gives his reasons for leaving Barcelona
As reported by SPORT, the Frenchman appeared in an interview recently, where he opened up on the reasons that took him from Barcelona to PSG during the summer.
The former Barcelona forward reassured that it was not because of his compatriot, Kylian Mbappe, that he left the Catalan club, and he himself loved the French club:
“Indeed, I said that I would stay at Barcelona, but after having talks with PSG, I convinced myself that I should leave. Kylian didn’t try to convince me. I came to Paris because I love the club; it’s a French club, and I love it.”
“I come from Évreux, not far from here. Everyone here talks about Paris Saint-Germain. It was destined that I would sign for this club someday.”
Dembele went on to explain that a lot of people around him wanted him to make the move to Paris:
“I have many friends, club supporters, who always tried to convince me to come.” Was it easy to choose after my best months at Barcelona? “I wanted to sign with PSG.”
Getting back to his best
While these comments show that his move to PSG definitely had his consent attached, Dembele has still not been able to get back to his best ever since joining the French club. However, Dembele remained confident that things would improve but also claimed that his form was not really that bad:
“I don’t judge my performances by the goals I score. You can score a goal and play a bad game, and you can not score and have been very good. I will improve my statistics. I sleep very well at night and always trust in myself. Even when it doesn’t go well, I try again.”
From these comments, three main reasons can be identified that led the Frenchman to leave Barcelona and join PSG last summer. PSG is highly popular where Dembele comes from, he himself liked the French club, and his close circle also pushed him to leave Barcelona to join PSG.
Meanwhile, Barcelona have not missed the Frenchman too much, as Lamine Yamal has made the big jump to the first team and Joao Felix is also performing at a high level under Xavi.
