Barcelona have completed the signing of Karim Adeyemi from Borussia Dortmund, with the German international putting pen to paper on a five-year contract that runs to June 2031. The deal is worth an initial €22m, with add-ons that could push the total value beyond €30m, and Dortmund have secured a 35 per cent sell-on clause on any future sale. Adeyemi is reported to be earning around €6m net per season at his new club and was presented as Barcelona's second attacking addition of the summer, following the earlier arrival of Anthony Gordon.
The move reunites Adeyemi with Hansi Flick, who gave him his senior Germany debut while in charge of the national team. Flick has long liked Adeyemi's profile: he is quick, direct, comfortable running in behind defences, and — important in a Flick side — he works hard without the ball, pressing and tracking back rather than just waiting for the game to come to him. Adeyemi built his reputation on the right wing at Dortmund but has also played as a second striker and, on occasion, as an out-and-out centre-forward, and that versatility appealed to Barcelona as they look to add depth across the front line alongside Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Gordon. Yamal played 43 of his 45 appearances last season on the right, and Adeyemi gives Flick a specialist option to rest him there without losing pace or directness.
For Dortmund, this is a deal shaped as much by circumstance as by football logic. Adeyemi's contract talks had stalled after he pushed for an exit clause in any extension beyond 2027, a condition the club were reluctant to accept, and the relationship cooled further after off-field issues and a publicised reaction to being substituted against Borussia Monchengladbach in December. Selling for €22m — well below the roughly €40m he had been valued at earlier in the season — reflects how far things had deteriorated. Sporting director Lars Ricken struck a diplomatic tone, saying: 'Karim has been an important part of Borussia Dortmund over the past four years. We wish Karim and his family all the best for the future.' Dortmund lose a genuine pace threat down the right and a player capable of real quality on his day, even if his output was not always consistent.
Adeyemi's final season at Dortmund was a mixed one. He scored five goals and set up three more in his first 16 games, form good enough that head coach Niko Kovac called him a 'world-class player' after a Champions League display against Villarreal. He never quite built on that autumn peak, finishing the campaign with seven goals and four assists in 28 Bundesliga appearances, 15 of them starts. It is a solid return for a wide forward, but not the sustained breakout that might have pushed his value even higher before Dortmund decided to sell.
At Barcelona, Adeyemi is most likely to be used as competition and rotation for Yamal on the right, with the option to shift into a more central, second-striker role when Flick wants extra pace and directness through the middle. He could make his first appearance in a pre-season friendly against Birmingham City on 31 July, with a possible La Liga debut following against Elche on 23 August. It is a fresh start for a player who arrives with plenty still to prove after a stop-start final year in Germany, working for a manager who already knows exactly what he can offer.