Barcelona will have to pay €100m plus for Ousmane Dembele says Borussia Dortmund CEO Watzke

Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has confirmed that Barcelona will need to pay a sum in excess of €100m (£90.2m, $117.7m) if they want to sign Ousmane Dembele.

Dembele, who scored eight goals and assisted 17 times in 41 appearances for Dortmund last season, has been touted as a potential replacement for Neymar, who earlier this week completed a world record €222m (£198m, $263.7m) move to Paris Saint-Germain.

According to French publication L'Equipe, Dembele has now become La Blaugrana's number one priority in the summer transfer window as they look to swiftly replace the Brazilian.

The 20-year-old, who has a contract at Dortmund until 2021, has been linked with the Catalans a lot of late and is also reportedly close to agreeing terms with the club.

However, Barcelona would have to match the Bundesliga side's valuation as Watzke confirmed that even a bid of €100m would not be enough to land the forward's signature.

"In every case, not enough," Watzke said when asked about a potential €100m fee, as quoted on FourFourTwo.

The 58-year-old also cited the departure of Wolfsburg's Kevin de Bruyne to Manchester City back in 2015 as a reason why the club may not accept such an astronomical fee.

Thanks to the performances of De Bruyne, Wolfsburg finished second in the Bundesliga during the 2014/2015 season before selling their star man for a fee of £54.5m ($71.1m) later that summer.

Die Wölfe were unable to replace the 26-year-old as they saw their performances slump, finishing eighth and 16th the following two seasons.

"I remember Kevin de Bruyne, he was the Bundesliga's record transfer," Watzke explained. "When you see the years after, it was not the best transfer though as the team lost lots of quality."

With all the focus on Dembele, speculation regarding the future of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has come down. He was previously linked with a move to Chelsea, Liverpool as well as China.

Watzke though, claims despite new media reports, the 28-year-old will remain at Signal Iduna Park.

"I think we've made clear that he [Aubameyang] will stay with us," Watzke added. "When we said that, the media wrote that he'll leave in January. No, he will definitely stay."