Four and half years after Ousmane Dembele became the most expensive purchase in Barcelona’s history, the club’s president Joan Laporta declared the winger “better than Mbappe”.
Laporta – who was not in charge when Dembele, then 20, joined for an initial €117 million from Borussia Dortmund – smiled at his audience of reporters as he made the remark.
He knew, speaking in early December 2021, he was making a big claim, and the statement masked a long, complicated relationship between Barca and a player whose great potential had too often been very far from his day-to-day reality.
The Dembele-Barca saga has never run smoothly for long, and its latest sharp twists and turns were being played out on Monday between the US, where Barca are on a pre-season tour, the club’s Catalonia offices, and Paris, where the names Kylian Mbappe and Dembele were being bracketed together again, this time by Paris Saint-Germain as the French club contemplated the exit of their own restless superstar.
For PSG, the recruitment of Dembele, 26, represents one way of soothing the likely departure of Mbappe.
Deadlines with heavy financial implications defined a hectic day of negotiations, July 31 being the last day of a period specified in Dembele’s Barcelona contract during which his buyout clause is set at €50 million – it would double as of August – and at the same time the deadline set in Mbappe’s contract for triggering a year’s extension to his current deal with PSG, one that expires in 2024.
Mbappe has made his intention not to extend very plain, leaving PSG facing the prospect of losing him for free next year unless they can sell him to a club he wishes to join – Real Madrid are by far the leading candidate – this summer.
Reconciled to saying goodbye to Mbappe sooner or later, PSG advanced their interest in Dembele over the weekend, reviving a previous enthusiasm that Laporta recalls only too well.
PSG 0 Al Nassr 0 - in pictures
In the winter of 2022, just weeks after the club president made his bold, fanciful comparison between Dembele (16 starts for France in seven years since his senior international debut) and Mbappe (captain of France with 70 caps to his name and still only 24), PSG were also pursuing the enigmatic winger.
Barca then spent that January in dispute with the Frenchman, briefly exiling him from first-team practice after he stalled on signing a contract with fresh terms and yet refused to be sold.
That episode forms part of a long, chequered history of fall-outs, frustrations, confrontations and occasional boos from the Camp Nou crowd.
But the Barca-Dembele saga has also been punctuated by applause and several thrilling glimpses of the inventive, uniquely imaginative dribbler they imagined they had signed for that hefty fee in the summer of 2017.
Back then, Barcelona had just received a world-record €222 million when PSG triggered Neymar’s buyout clause – a sale Barca did not want to make.
In the next five transfer windows, they would spend all the Neymar bounty and much more on three now notorious signings: Dembele; Philippe Coutinho – €135 million from Liverpool – and Antoine Griezmann, at €120 million from Atletico Madrid.
They were notorious because Coutinho flopped and Griezmann returned to Atletico unfulfilled in Catalonia. Barca made huge losses on their investments in both players.
For a period, Dembele’s purchase fee looked the biggest squander of all three €100 million-plus signings. Persistent injuries meant that in the six seasons he has been on the staff at Camp Nou he has been unavailable for almost 40 per cent of matches.
He has played under five different head coaches, but the last of them, Xavi, has been his most ardent backer.
Last season, Barcelona’s progress to the Liga title featured Dembele at his most influential in the first half of the campaign, injury then putting a brake on his momentum. He still assisted in more goals than in any previous season in a Barca jersey.
At the weekend, Dembele scored the opening goal in Barcelona’s 3-0 win over Real Madrid in Dallas, only a pre-season friendly but still a boost to the Spanish champions’ morale – not least in the elegant way Pedri picked out Dembele’s run, a sign of the smooth, established complicity between two of Xavi’s most creative players – and in Dembele’s precise, angled finish.
“He’s essential for us,” Xavi said of Dembele, already anticipating that, with the player’s reputation at a fresh high, a tough battle to retain him was ahead.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
EMILY%20IN%20PARIS%3A%20SEASON%203
%3Cp%3ECreated%20by%3A%20Darren%20Star%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Lily%20Collins%2C%20Philippine%20Leroy-Beaulieu%2C%20Ashley%20Park%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%202.75%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Biog
Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara
He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada
Father of two sons, grandfather of six
Plays golf once a week
Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family
Walks for an hour every morning
Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India
2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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South Korea
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
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Bombshell
Director: Jay Roach
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie
Four out of five stars
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan 2 (Vecino 65', Barella 83')
Verona 1 (Verre 19' pen)
Jawan
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAtlee%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Shah%20Rukh%20Khan%2C%20Nayanthara%2C%20Vijay%20Sethupathi%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E4%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
UAE SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Adel Al Hosani
Defenders: Bandar Al Ahbabi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Mohammed Barghash, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Hassan Al Mahrami, Yousef Jaber, Salem Rashid, Mohammed Al Attas, Alhassan Saleh
Midfielders: Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Abdullah Al Naqbi, Majed Hassan, Yahya Nader, Ahmed Barman, Abdullah Hamad, Khalfan Mubarak, Khalil Al Hammadi, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Harib Abdallah, Mohammed Jumah, Yahya Al Ghassani
Forwards: Fabio De Lima, Caio Canedo, Ali Saleh, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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