“When used properly, he could become the best player in the world.”
This bold statement from former Barcelona boss Xavi back in 2021 contained a sentiment Ousmane Dembele had heard throughout his career.
Some raised their eyebrows and many doubted the mercurial Frenchman would ever be able to reach the heights predicted for him after becoming the second most expensive player in the world when he signed for Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund in a deal worth £135.5m in 2017.
But, after a journey that has had many lows as he battled against injury, inconsistency and questions about his attitude, the 28-year-old has finally seen that prophecy come true afterwinning the Ballon d’Or- a prize he has long-since dreamt of.
As he thanked his family for their sacrifices in helping him win the top men’s award in Paris, Dembele broke down in tears, a sign of the ups and downs he has experienced throughout his career.
Dembele’s incredible 2024-25 season helped his club Paris St-Germain win a Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Champions League treble, before also reaching the final of the Club World Cup.
He scored 35 goals and recorded 14 assists in all competitions and, after a quiet start to the season, was Europe’s most in-form forward according to the stats from the turn of the year.
His achievement can’t be underestimated either. He has seen off Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, who recorded more goal involvements than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues last season, Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe, who scored more goals, and the brilliance of Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and Raphinha.
Dembele’s transformation began at Barcelona a couple of years before he joined PSG as he started to see things differently. But he loved the idea of being a star and he was invited to be ambitious at PSG.
Mbappe’s exit from the French club to join Real Madrid – ironically a move many predicted would cement his place as the world’s best player – proved the final piece in the much-puzzled-over jigsaw for Dembele as manager Luis Enrique told him, we now want goals from you and we want you to be egotistical.
The coaching staff just kept saying to him ‘Ballon d’Or, Ballon d’Or, Ballon d’Or’.
In August 2023, PSG bought the France international for just £43.5m, and he scored six goals and made 14 assists as PSG won the league and cup double.
He was far from the main man though with the club’s record scorer Mbappe netting 44 in all competitions in the best of his seven seasons for PSG. It turned out to be his last as Real Madrid came calling.
A new-look PSG needed a new leader and talisman. Step forward Dembele.
And step forward he certainly did. His 51 goal involvements was more than twice his best in a single campaign in his whole career, while his 35 goals was 21 more than he’d managed before.
Last summer, manager Luis Enrique told Dembele that without Mbappe in the team he needed more goals from him to go with his large number of assists – carte blanche for the player to show a more selfish approach with less passing and a bigger desire to score.
In private, the coaching staff have frequently told him that if he managed to convert a decent percentage of the chances he creates, it could lead to collective success and then individual honours.
Dembele took it all on board and has relished playing in his new tactical role.
In 2023-24, he was mostly played on the right. There was no way of dislodging Mbappe from the central role.
Now he mostly operates as a false nine, inside, where he touches the ball more, enjoys a greater freedom to receive passes and participates in the build-up but with more chances to finish.
A new role and a new man.
To put Dembele’s transformation solely down to Mbappe’s Real move would be wrong. That was simply the final step.
Despite being largely injury free at Rennes and Dortmund, he sustained 14 muscle injuries in his time at the Nou Camp, spending 784 days sidelined.
Concerns over discipline and professionalism led the club to assign private chefs to him, while late nights because of gaming affected his training punctuality, making him the club’s most-fined player in recent years.
Still, when fit, his explosive pace and dribbling made him a game-changer, as he showed glimpses of the talent Barcelona invested in.
So what changed him?
Those that know Dembele best – and few do – say he changed after marrying his girlfriend Rima in Morocco in December 2021, and soon after he had a child.
The wedding came as a surprise to many of his team-mates, not least because they did not even know he had a partner.
So the big changes to his life occurred in his last two seasons at Barcelona when, essentially, he grew up.
Dembele worked at home with a physiotherapist and frequently went to France to receive specialised preventative treatments. With the eyes and mind of a father, he began to see things differently.
He finally took on board the importance of good nutrition and, for the past few seasons, has employed a French nutritionist who has helped him maintain a healthier lifestyle.
For some time many believed that a Champions League triumph for PSG would be dependent on the on-field achievements of one of France’s heroes. They also believed that French hero would go on to become the world’s best.
They were right – just not with Mbappe, but a rejuvenated Dembele.
