Borussia Dortmund have announced that they have rejected an offer from Barcelona for the services of young striker Ousmane Dembele.
The 20-year-old is one of the La Liga side's top targets this summer as they look to find multiple replacements to fill the void left by Neymar's departure for Paris Saint-Germain.
Barca are flush with cash following the world-record, £200m deal, prompting Dortmund to quote them £135m for a player they signed for just £13m 12 months ago.
Following the reports, Dembele failed to show up for training today and now the Bundesliga side have confirmed that Barca's first attempt at a deal has been turned down.
"Borussia Dortmund has held talks with FC Barcelona regarding the possible transfer of the BVB player Ousmane Dembele to FC Barcelona," the club said in a statement.
"During this meeting, the representatives of FC Barcelona submitted a bid which did not correspond to the player's extraordinary footballing and other status and not to 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."
Dembele scored six goals in 32 Bundesliga appearances during his debut campaign.
Neil Wilkes
