Why didn't Ousmane Dembélé finally left to Manchester United

Ousmane Dembélé times at FC Barcelona were about to end during the last transfer window. The French attacker never fitted at the club and president Joseph María Bartomeu was thinking to sell him. Manchester United showed some interest on signing him, but finally the transfer blew.

Dembélé arrived to Barcelona on August 2017 for more than $130 million from Borussia Dortmund. The club played that amount of money thinking that he could be a vital player for the team in the future. But, after more than three years he only played one match out of three in the start of La Liga season and only the 25 per cent of possible minuted at Barça.

The club was looking his way out and for the player it was a good chance to gain minutes. But, despite Manchester United interest, Barcelona didn't let him out as the player wanted to leave in a loan without signing a contract extension before.

Dembélé is 23 years old and has a contract until June 2022 what means that if he left for a year he would have come back with just 12 months of duration in his contract. Barcelona clearly didn't want him as a free agent with 25 years old so rejected his move to Manchester and urged Ronald Koeman to count on him for the season.