Dembele slammed for 'tarnishing the Barcelona badge' by Stoichkov

Barcelona legend Hristo Stoichkov hits out at Ousmane Dembele for ‘TARNISHING the badge’ amid his bitter contract dispute with the club… who plan to sell him in January if he fails to put pen to paper on an extension

  • Ousmane Dembele is out of contract with Barcelona at the end of June
  • The Spanish club have said they will sell him if he chooses not to sign a new deal
  • Dembele came out and accused Barca of ‘blackmail’ in a furious statement
  • But ex-forward Hristo Stoichkov believes he has never understood the club 

Barcelona legend Hristo Stoichkov has blasted Ousmane Dembele for ‘tarnishing the badge’ amid his bitter contract stand-off with the club.

Dembele, 24, has just over five months remaining on his current Barca deal, meaning he is currently set to leave the Nou Camp on a free transfer in the summer.

With talks over an extension seemingly at an impasse, on Thursday club sporting director Mateu Alemany announced that the Frenchman will be sold in January if he cannot agree an extension.

Barcelona legend Hristo Stoichkov has blasted Ousmane Dembele for ‘tarnishing the badge’

That statement sparked a furious reaction from Dembele, who was left out of Xavi’s squad to face Athletic Bilbao on Thursday.

He wrote on social media: ‘Still under contract, I am fully involved and at the disposal of my club, my coach. I am not a man who cheats and even less a man who has a habit of giving in to blackmail.’

However, Stoichkov has hit out at Dembele for failing to understand Barca as a club, while heaping praise on Xavi for leaving him out of Thursday’s squad. 

‘If you don’t want to be at Barcelona, at least don’t tarnish the badge,’ the former Barca forward told TUDN, via Marca.

Stoichkov insists Dembele has ‘never understood’ what his former club are about

‘Xavi, I applaud you for not taking him into the dressing room, because that dressing room deserves respect; it has 121 years of history. 

‘Mr. [Joan] Laporta, open the door. Let people who don’t feel the colours go; I sweated for that shirt.

‘Dembele never understood what Barcelona is. I got involved as a foreigner to find out what the club was, from the time of [Laszlo] Kubala, [Lobo] Carrasco, [Gary] Lineker, Jose Mari Bakero and Julio Salinas. They all knew the story, [but] you never did.’




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