Dortmund turned down not good enough Barcelona offer for Dembele

Borussia Dortmund have rejected an offer from Barcelona for France winger Ousmane Dembele, the Bundelsliga club have confirmed.

Dembele has been touted as a target for Barca since Neymar completed his world-record €222million switch to Paris Saint-Germain last week.

The 20-year-old missed training without permission on Thursday, with Dortmund head coach Peter Bosz telling a news conference the club had been unable to contact Dembele.

Speculation that a move to Barcelona was imminent soon mounted before BVB issued a statement saying a bid had been lodged by the Catalan giants but it did not meet their valuation for a player they signed from Rennes for €15m last year.

The statement read: “Borussia Dortmund has held talks with the Catalan football club FC Barcelona regarding the possible transfer of the BVB player Ousmane Dembele to FC Barcelona.

“During this meeting, the representatives of FC Barcelona submitted a bid which did not match the player’s extraordinary footballing ability or value to the club, nor the present economic market situation of the European transfer market. BVB therefore rejected this offer.

“As there is no other offer from FC Barcelona to date, there is currently no transfer of the player to FC Barcelona and this is not currently likely.”