Jadon Sancho is "guaranteed" to be at Borussia Dortmund next season, the club's CEO has insisted, as media speculation continues to link a number of Europe's top clubs to the England winger.
Liverpool, Manchester United and Barcelona are among the clubs reportedly interested in 19-year-old Sancho, who has seen his value skyrocket after a remarkable season in Germany.
Dortmund, who signed Sancho for €7.8 million (Dh32m) from Manchester City in 2017, have repeatedly ruled out selling the England international in recent months, but speculation resurfaced this week after the club signed two similar attacking players in Thorgan Hazard and Julian Brandt.
But in an interview with Bild newspaper on Sunday, Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said they would not let Sancho leave, at least not this summer.
"It is safe to assume that Jadon will not play for Dortmund for the next 10 years," said Watzke. "But in terms of the present day, we have very clear agreements. Jadon is not on the market and he is guaranteed to be a Dortmund player next season."
Sancho earned his first England call-up in October, and established himself as a regular starter as Dortmund challenged for the Bundesliga title this season, scoring 12 goals and assisting 17 in 34 league appearances.
The team eventually finished two points behind champions Bayern Munich, but Watzke insisted that Dortmund will continue to challenge for the title in future.
"We want to be champions, but Bayern are like Mount Everest, an 8000-metre challenge. You can try to tackle it, and we will do that," he said.
"German football has a problem abroad because people see it as having a football monoculture. We broke that this season, and we feel we owe it to German football to set our sights on the title."
Watzke also admitted, however, that neither Dortmund nor Bayern could hope to keep up with the financial might of the Premier League.
"England takes in €2.1 billion more than us in TV rights money every year," he said. "As long as it stays like that, we can only have occasional success. No German team will be able to remain at the top of the European game anymore."
