The stage was set. The microphones, the contracts, the cameras, the video reveal too, just not the press room: there were hugs and smiles but also some things that were best left unsaid, better to move on and pretend they never happened. On Thursday afternoon, FC Barcelona presented the man their president once claimed is better than Kylian Mbappe. You may have heard of him: his name is Ousmane Dembele and he joins them from FC Barcelona, where he has played -- and quite often not played -- for five seasons.
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Well, sort of. For the last fourteen days, Dembele has not had a club at all, stuck with nowhere to go. Officially, he's been unemployed since the end of June, when his old contract expired. His new one runs until 2024, which isn't long. If there was something a little unusual about the presentation of a new player who was not new at all but just extending his contract, that was in keeping with the whole thing, all these months that have ended with Barcelona signing their own player, one they can't register yet.
"Xavi wanted you from the start, and so did the club," the president Joan Laporta told Dembele, holding his arm aloft like a victorious boxer. "Barcelona were always my first choice," Dembele said now, and now is the word. If this was what they had all wanted, it wasn't exactly what he had wanted.
It was not so long ago that Barcelona broke off contract negotiations with Dembele's agent Moussa Sissoko, convinced that he had already signed a deal to take his client to PSG, even if his client didn't want to move there. Not so long ago, Barcelona CEO Mateu Alemany told Dembele to sign now or leave immediately. Barcelona needed a new deal done there, heading into a transfer window where their hands were tied financially, but didn't get one. Alemany announced, very publicly, that the footballer was no longer committed to Barcelona.
Dembele, who had not said a word in 4 1/2 years, whose public persona was nonexistent, wrote a public letter in which he said he would not be blackmailed, and did not appreciate people questioning his commitment -- the people at the very top of the club where he still had a contract, if not it seemed for much longer. He refused to back down or cede to the implicit, and sometimes explicit, attempt to drive a wedge between him and his agent. Silent for so long, suddenly he turned all poetic: "Surely love is a form of blackmail," he said. And then he went quiet again.
Dembele was left out of the squad for the trip to Bilbao in the Copa del Rey -- they could have done with him that night, losing 1-0 at San Mames -- and told he would not play for Barcelona again. Adama Traore was signed in part as a way of putting pressure on him, physical proof that they didn't need him. Other clubs were encouraged to come and get him. But even if they didn't, there was no way back, or so it goes. His career in Catalonia was going to end the way it had largely played out: sitting there, not in the team, watching other people play for Barcelona.
It didn't work out that way. The club played hardball but Xavi, the head coach, wanted him to play. He had said that, carefully coached, Dembele could be the best in the world in his position and that extending his contract was a priority. But this wasn't just about the future. (And it certainly wasn't about the past). Even if he didn't renew, even if it was just for the final few months, Xavi insisted on playing him. If he had a footballer, he might as well use him. He publicly appealed for the club to leave their egos to one side, to stop inflicting damage on themselves, and then he put Dembele back in the team.
His first game was away at rivals Espanyol, a place where he could be guaranteed a nicer reception than the one that awaited him at home. When he did appear at the Camp Nou, he was whistled and booed. The fans didn't want him there either. He had done nothing to suggest that he was committed, and in truth, not all that much to suggest that he was particularly special. He had come for £105 million plus £40m more in incentives, the second-most expensive player ever. They had chosen him over Mbappe. There was talent there, for sure, flashes of something exceptional, but it was still a promise four years later. He hadn't had a single season in which he had played more than 30 league games.
The whistles, in truth, didn't last that long -- again, because Xavi intervened, once more pointing out that they were only hurting themselves -- but they weren't keen. And then he started playing, really playing. It may be wise not to overstate it here. He only scored twice and that step forward from Barcelona, including a 4-0 Clasico win, slipped slightly. But he finished the season with more assists than anyone in LaLiga -- despite playing only 21 games. There was an even bigger statistic. Injuries: zero. He seemed happy, actually a part of it at last.
All the while there was...well, nothing really. Just silence.
The offer of renewal had been withdrawn, or so Barcelona had said. Thing is, they also said there was an offer, which he could take or leave. And let's face it, he was going to leave it. They started to plan without him; budget without him, too. While Dembele told Xavi he wanted to stay, there were no promises, and no sign of anyone backing down. The manager's view was that Dembele wanted to stay and the issues were purely about money, but he couldn't be entirely confident about that. Dembele said he wanted to stay but there was no step forward, no agreement, and not much there to change the suspicion that he had a deal in place with some other club. Deadlines had come and gone, trust had long since left.
His contract had gone too. By July 1, he was no longer even a Barcelona player.
Now he is again. Those offers that his camp had expected to have on the table -- whether to accept or to force Barcelona's hand -- didn't materialise. He just wasn't that attractive a proposition to other clubs. Nor did Barcelona change their position: they weren't going to be driven up by the risk of losing him, the threat of other clubs outbidding them, not given their financial situation. They were going to wait longer than they said, only they weren't waiting for anything: they did so thinking the likely outcome was that he would leave and -- at an institutional level, at least -- they were not too bothered by that.
The eventual yes, Xavi again intervening, wasn't universally anticipated. Much of this wasn't. Sissoko, who had turned down an offer in the winter thinking he could get something much better, now accepted something much worse. Dembele had nothing else and so went back with his tail between his legs. By the time he did, the deal for Raphinha was ready to go. Barcelona let it be known that Dembele's current deal is 40% lower than the offer he had in the winter. Sissoko hadn't exactly played his cards right, his client losing out. Alemany had won big.
"Ousmane has made an effort to readapt and fit in with our new salary structure," Laporta said, beaming.
A word of warning here: it is always a good idea to maintain a healthy and large dose of scepticism. That is Barcelona's version of events. The version from Dembele's camp is different, just as deliberately filtered and just as difficult to accept at face value: the claim of an increase from £12m a year pre-tax to £11m a year after-tax. Everyone rounds the figures up or down according to their narrative; everyone includes or excludes incentives in those figures according to what suits them. As one sporting director put it, neatly: "No one tells the truth during the window."
Xavi absolutely has prevailed, and in the face of obstacles from all sides. He made this possible, when others had given in; now he needs to get Dembele to be the player he said he could be, the one he started to look like last season for the first time at Barcelona. And ultimately, maybe that is the only thing that matters now, if they can leave all that other stuff behind.
It's tempting to say that with the way it happened, the damage it did, no one really won. No one really looked good, it wasn't exactly amicable, and it certainly wasn't warm. But the manager has won, and the club ultimately got a renewal at a reduced cost.
And when you strip away everything else, Dembele probably has won too: having been told to go, that he would never play again, having been whistled and rejected, the last six months have suggested that his could be the right place after all and now he is staying. The "dream" he announced five years ago and repeated this week may still be on. And if those smiles and handshakes and good humour from the presentation of a player that was already theirs but left only to come back again hid a degree of tension, maybe even regret, at least it is done at last.
"It's been a long time," Dembele said, "but everyone's happy now."