Barcelona have told French attacker Ousmane Dembele that he must leave the club before the end of January.
Dembele, who joined the La Liga giants from Borussia Dortmund in 2017 in a deal worth €140 million, has yet to agree a new deal and can leave for free when his contract expires in the summer.
Debt-ridden Barca are desperate to avoid that scenario and want to pocket some cash in the current transfer window.
“With Ousmane and his agent we began conversations around July so it's been six months and a bit,” said Barcelona director of football Mateu Alemany.
“We've talked, we've talked, we've talked. Barca has made different offers.
“We've tried to find a way for the player to continue with us but these offers have been systematically rejected by his agents and today, January 20, eleven days before the last period of his contract ends, it seems obvious to us that the player does not want to continue at Barcelona and he is not committed to Barca's future project.
“In this scenario he and his agents have been informed that he must leave immediately because we want players committed to this project and therefore we hope that a transfer will take place before January 31.”
Manager Xavi Hernandez left the 24-year-old out of his squad to Athletic Bilbao in their last-16 Copa del Rey clash on Thursday.
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Dembele has been linked with a host of clubs, including Premier League sides Manchester United, Liverpool and Saudi-backed Newcastle United.
“He wants to stay but it has not been agreed so we have to make a decision as a club and that is either to renew or find an exit,” said Xavi, who took over at Camp Nou in November.
“It's a shame. He has played every possible minute since I have been coach. It is not an easy or pleasant situation, but the interests of the club are paramount.”
Dembele has struggled with injuries during his spell in Spain, making 87 La Liga appearances in four-and-a-half seasons, scoring 18 goals. He has been capped 27 times by France scoring four goals.
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The bio
Favourite book: Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
Favourite quote: “The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist
Favourite Authors: Arab poet Abu At-Tayyib Al-Mutanabbi
Favourite Emirati food: Luqaimat, a deep-fried dough soaked in date syrup
Hobbies: Reading and drawing
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
