Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele has been told to leave the club immediately after he was dropped from the squad for their match against Athletic Club.
Dembele had earlier been informed by Xavi that he would have to depart Camp Nou unless he signed a new contract.
However, Barcelona’s director of football Mateu Alemany revealed on Thursday, January 20, that Dembele was not willing to pen fresh terms.
"We told him and his agents that he must leave the club immediately because we want to have players committed to the project.
"We expect a transfer to take place before January 31. The sporting consequence is that we don't want to have players who don't want to be at Barca,” Alemany stated.
Dembele has six months left in his contract after spending the last four-and-a-half seasons at Barcelona, having initially joined the club from Borussia Dortmund in 2017, but now only has six months left to run on his contract.
Barca have been trying to convince the 24-year-old to add his contract for several months but there has been no sign of a final agreement being reached, with Xavi warning the winger that he was running out of time to make a decision.
The club will be receiving bid from different interested clubs as they look to move him on this month to avoid him leaving as a free agent come the end of the season.
During his time at Camp Nou, Dembele has had a difficult time as he struggled with both fitness and form.
Dembele has appeared in 11 games across all competitions in 2021-22 so far and has only managed to record one goal and two assists.