Ousmane Dembele returns to Barcelona, transfer to PSG in doubt?

Ousmane Dembele's transfer to PSG is on the horizon, but the exact timeline remains uncertain. The French forward arrived in Paris on Thursday, hoping to undergo his medical examination and finalize the move over the weekend. However, Barcelona forced him to return to Spain on Sunday, as reported by Le Parisien, in order to train with them.

Negotiations between PSG and Barcelona have been ongoing since last Monday after the French champions triggered a release clause valued at €50m. Both clubs have been discussing the terms and payment deadlines, eventually reaching a compromise.

Barcelona will only receive half of the transfer fee, as the other portion goes to the player and his agent, as agreed during Dembele's contract extension with Barça last summer.

Barcelona seems to be dragging out the proceedings, which makes sense following their statements saying that they were willing to "go to war" against PSG following the steal of Dembele from their ranks.

In order for Dembele to undergo the medical examination, initially scheduled for Friday and later postponed to Saturday (and now probably Tuesday), PSG must wait for some final documents from Catalonia to arrive at their HQ and those of the Ligue 1 so the transaction can be made official.

As a result, Dembele is still a Barcelona player and thus he is obligated to follow his team's schedule, including appearing at training sessions if he doesn't want to get fined.

After three days off, like his Barcelona teammates, Dembele returned to Barcelona on Sunday evening and is expected to train with the rest of the first-team members on Monday.

Xavi, his current coach, is reportedly not pleased with the situation as he wants to focus on preparing for the match against Getafe with the players available that will remain in Barcelona next season, of whom Dembele is not one.

Despite the current uncertainty, both DembEle and PSG remain optimistic that the transfer will eventually go through as both parties have already agreed to a five-year contract.

While the precise course of events remains a bit unclear, the desire for the transfer to go through is evident from both the player and the club, and the worst-case scenario would be a slight delay that rules Dembele out of the first Ligue 1 game of the season but has him ready to play in MD2 of the campaign next week.

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