Barcelona To Offer $119M Star To Manchester United In Exchange For Anthony Martial: Report

FC Barcelona are reportedly eyeing a swap deal that would see Anthony Martial land in Camp Nou from Manchester United.

Barcelona signed Ferran Torres from Manchester City at the beginning of the mid-season transfer window. In order to register the player, Barcelona will have to offload some current players’ wages.

With a weekly wage of $387,580, Ousmane Dembele is the second-highest earner at Barcelona at present, according to salarysport.com.

Dembele, whose current deal with Barcelona is set to expire at the end of the 2021-22 season, has not signed an extension yet. If his contract situation remains the same, Barcelona are planning to offer Dembele to Manchester United in return for Martial, reported Spanish media outlet ARA.

As of now, Dembele is free to reach a pre-season contract with any other club that would see the 24-year-old forward leave Barcelona as a free agent. Barcelona bought Dembele at a hefty fee of around $119 million from Borussia Dortmund in 2017. However, the Frenchman’s stay in Barcelona has been mainly hit by various injuries.

Even in the ongoing campaign, Dembele missed 16 games due to knee and hamstring injury before contracting the coronavirus that would now keep him away at least until Jan. 12, according to Transfermarkt.

Dembele has made only eight appearances for Barcelona in 2021-22 and is yet to score a goal.

Meanwhile, Martial has already informed Manchester United that he wants to part ways during the underway winter market. Martial has been struck with injuries this season that has seen him miss six games and fall down the pecking order at Old Trafford.

However, Manchester United’s interim boss Ralf Rangnick has said that Martial will be allowed to leave only if they receive an offer from a suitable club.

"He [Martial] made it very clear that he wants to leave and, in a way, I can understand his wish to leave and to try to play more regularly somewhere else. But, again, it's a question not only of what he wants to do but it's also a question of which kind of clubs are interested in him and do they meet the demands of the club, so we have to wait and see," Rangnick was quoted by BBC Sport, as saying in a recent interview.

Having played 10 competitive games so far this season, Martial has managed to bag only seven league appearances, out of which, he started only two. The France national has scored only once this season.