Dortmund rejects Barcelona's reported €100M bid for Dembele

Borussia Dortmund has rejected an initial bid - thought to be in the neighbourhood of €100 million - from Barcelona for star winger Ousmane Dembele.

The Bundesliga outfit released a statement Thursday confirming an approach from the Blaugrana, which read: "There has been a discussion with Barcelona in regards to a possible transfer of Ousmane Dembele.

"In these talks Barcelona have presented an offer that does not match the extraordinary footballing and otherwise status of the player and also not the current market situation. BVB have turned this offer down."

With Barcelona looking to add an attacking talent on the heels of Neymar's world-record move to Paris Saint-Germain, the Catalan club has been strongly linked with Dembele. Thursday's statement from Dortmund confirmed the approach from Barcelona.

"And as there is no other offer from Barcelona a transfer should not be expected and is at this moment in time unlikely," the statement added.

Related: Dortmund's Dembele curiously absent from training amid Barcelona rumours

Dortmund's announcement came hours after the pacey France international failed to show up to training, prompting club sports director Michael Zorc's revelation that the player would now face an "interim suspension."

"Ousmane Dembele missed training today without notifying the club and has clearly taken this action consciously. We will obviously sanction him for this," Zorc said. "We have also suspended the player until after the cup game at the weekend."

That decision came as reports suggested Dembele had missed training to fly to Paris with friends, while L'Equipe stated that the 20-year-old was set to fly to Barcelona "in the coming hours" to work out a deal.

If Barcelona's offer was only €100 million, it's a curious decision considering Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke stated last week that a bid of that amount was insufficient for a player of Dembele's ilk, saying, "In every case, (the transfer fee is) not enough."