PROFILE | Ousmane Dembélé on a path to re-molding his reputation
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Ousmane Dembélé's reputation in France is perhaps best summarised by a quick YouTube search. Instead of a selection of his characteristically endless dribbles and long-distance strikes, "Ousmane Dembélé compilation" brings up videos of the forward's most amusing moments — from misunderstandings in interviews to his infamous Football Manager save during the World Cup in 2018. This past year, though, the Paris Saint-Germain winger began to turn that image around, even if there were some lapses along the way.
With Kylian Mbappé now out of the picture, Dembélé has somewhat unwittingly seen himself thrust to the fore as the new face of the team's attack, just under a year after his arrival from Barcelona.
A standout performance against his former club
The forward had unceremoniously left the Blaugrana after six years to join the Ligue 1 champions, as one of a host of French internationals signed as part of an effort to build a core of compatriots around Mbappé. Replacing Neymar as the team's playmaker and trickster-in-chief, Dembélé was invariably the signing who arrived with the most expectation within the new-look PSG.
As had been the case throughout his time at Barcelona, the winger did show his undeniable talent for weaving around defences and setting up teammates, but only in brief flashes. Having endured a somewhat underwhelming return to France seven years after leaving, the turning point of Dembélé's season inevitably came when he was reunited with the Catalans in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The World Cup winner would leave his mark on both legs. In the first fixture at the Parc des Princes, a thumping finish from a tight angle pulled the hosts level just after half-time. Dembélé would have no hesitation in wheeling away in celebration. Two weeks later, after receiving a predictably hostile welcome from the Montjuïc crowd, the Frenchman again scored PSG's first as they turned around a two-goal deficit to qualify for the last four.
The Rennes youth product has led Ligue 1's assist charts across both of his campaigns in the French capital so far – a particularly impressive feat given PSG's struggle to anoint a first-choice number nine this season. With Randal Kolo Muani cast aside and Gonçalo Ramos' injury issues, Luis Enrique has even resorted to deploying Dembélé himself in a central role on a couple of occasions, to mixed results.
In the midst of that attacking instability, though, Dembélé has emerged as an unexpectedly reliable source of goals since the start of the new season. The wayward, rushed shots after meandering runs remain a hallmark of the winger's play, but he has nevertheless proven slightly more adroit in front of goal.
A strained relationship with Luis Enrique?
With eight goals in the league this autumn, the French international has already matched his second-highest tally across an entire campaign – his record being a 12-goal haul in his breakout season in Brittany.
His availability has also increased dramatically, after an injury-blighted spell at Barcelona. Since arriving in Paris, the winger has only missed a handful of games – owing to a hamstring issue towards the end of 2023 – and has been match-fit for virtually the entirety of 2024. This has allowed Dembélé to string together a consistent run of playing time, the likes of which he has rarely enjoyed over the course of his career so far.
Amid reports of a strained relationship with Luis Enrique, which was said to have reached its nadir when he was sent off against Bayern Munich in the Champions League in November, Dembélé was momentarily dropped from the starting eleven towards the end of the calendar year. The tension between the two former Barcelona employees appears to have cooled since, though, with the 27-year-old returning to the lineup midway through December. With a goal against Lyon and a double in Monaco, he had patently come back stronger from the dip in form and favour.
That said, Dembélé does remain susceptible to erratic performances plagued by scattergun decision-making, as his outing in Munich showed. Les Parisiens' number ten was later openly criticised by his manager, who lamented the "serious mistake" that left his team short-handed from the hour mark onwards. While not all of the 27-year-old's performances on the European stage this season have been as undisciplined, there is a clear distance with regard to his domestic displays. That also goes for PSG more collectively; Luis Enrique’s side are at serious risk of elimination from the Champions League at the first hurdle.
Dembélé’s upward trajectory at club level mirrored on international scene
The Normandy native's international form has followed on a similarly upward trend since this summer. There had been a sense that the winger had never quite bounced back from his catastrophic 41-minute showing in the last World Cup final, scarcely making an impact on games despite Didier Deschamps' faith and his evident popularity among the squad.
Despite France's general struggles going forward at Euro 2024, a characteristically unpredictable Dembélé did have his moments. In the final group stage match, against Poland, he would draw the penalty that allowed Mbappé to become the team's first goalscorer at the tournament. In the quarter-final against Portugal, coming on midway through the first half to turn in the single most incisive and dynamic performance by a French forward across the competition before converting the first penalty of the ensuing shoot-out.
In the Nations League win over Belgium in September, he scored his first goal for Les Bleus in ten months – a drought which extended to over three years when overlooking the 14-0 drubbing of Gibraltar.
With the national team, too, Dembélé has found himself taking on a senior role on the frontline after the early retirement of Antoine Griezmann and Mbappé's extended absence. It's a role that the 27-year-old was not necessarily equipped for to start with, but there are early signs of a more focused (albeit less spectacular) approach. Should that newfound efficiency continue into the new year, Dembélé may be able to finally establish himself as the world-leading winger – a status that his talent so obviously commands but that his inconsistency, lapses, and infrequent ill-discipline have so far occluded.
