Barcelona have failed with a bid for Borussia Dortmund striker Ousmane Dembele as they seek a replacement for Neymar.
The 20-year-old Frenchman skipped training with Dortmund on Thursday and was swiftly suspended by the Bundesliga club.
In a statement to the German stock exchange, Dortmund said talks with Barcelona had taken place but that an offer had been refused.
Dortmund said Barcelona’s bid “did not correspond … to the present economic situation of the European transfer market”.
Dembele was a no-show for training as Dortmund prepared for their DFB-Pokal first-round encounter with minnows Rielasingen-Arlen, and news of Barcelona’s firm interest may explain his rebellion.
He has been suspended until next week, Dortmund said.
Barcelona are seeking to fill the gap left by Neymar’s shock defection to Paris St Germain, and clubs know they have big money to spend after bringing in 222 million euros (£200.6million) for the Brazilian.
Dortmund’s statement to shareholders regarding Dembele was titled ‘Transfer rumours around the BVB (Dortmund) player Ousmane Dembele ‘, and ended with the club insisting the youngster remained their player.
It began by statting that Dortmund “held talks with the Catalan football club FC Barcelona regarding the possible transfer of the BVB player Ousmane Dembele to FC Barcelona”.
The statement added: “During this meeting, representatives of FC Barcelona submitted a bid which did not correspond to the player’s extraordinary footballing and additional value of the player and the present economic situation of the European transfer market.
“BVB therefore rejected this offer.
“As there has been no further offer from FC Barcelona to date, there is currently no transfer of the player to FC Barcelona and this is not currently likely.”
