Hardwood timber
France duo Mbappe and Dembele also played together at Paris Saint-Germain
(Image credit: Getty Images)
For a long time, Ousmane Dembele was regarded as one of the most exciting attacking talents in the game, but one who was failing to consistently meet his undeniable potential. After impressive back-to-back seasons at Rennes and Borussia Dortmund, the Frenchman made a £135million move to Barcelona in 2017, a fee which made him the second-most expensive player ever at the time. Dembele was just 20 years old at the time, and with such a fee comes huge pressure, with a stop-start beginning to his Barca career causing many to question whether the Catalans had overpaid for the forward. Frank Leboeuf on how Dembele reached his potential
Dembele struggled to reach his potential at Barcelona (Image credit: Getty) After struggling with injuries and failing to live up to his vast fee in Barcelona, Dembele joined Paris Saint-Germain in 2023 for a more modest £43.5million fee, but again there would be something of a roadblock for him at the Parc des Princes. This time it would be the presence of Kylian Mbappe in the team, as Dembele would often have to play second fiddle to his countryman. Mbappe was a key figure at PSG (Image credit: Getty Images) This is something that former France defender Frank Leboeuf believes, as he claims Mbappe’s 2024 exit has been key in the making of Dembele, alongside a greater focus on training and well-being. “I used to have the feeling, whenever I saw Ousmane lining up to play alongside Kylian for PSG, that there was a slight inferiority complex,” the former Chelsea man tells FourFourTwo.
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week. “Almost as if he played down his own ability in order to serve Kylian,”
Given how Dembele’s career has blossomed over the past two seasons, Lebeouf may have a point. Dembele has netted 55 times and provided 27 assists since Mbappe’s exit, helping PSG to maintain their stranglehold on Ligue 1, while also winning back-to-back Champions League titles – the first in the club’s history. Dembele won the Ballon d’Or last year (Image credit: Getty Images) The 29-year-old has also won the game’s most prestigious individual honour when he claimed the Ballon d’Or last year, with Lebouef adding that there is recent precedent in players stepping out of the shadow of an iconic star to excel. “That’s nothing new in football, and we saw it with Karim Benzema at Real Madrid,” he adds. “When Cristiano Ronaldo left, only then did he become the star.”
For more than a decade, Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor.
Mewis has had stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others and worked at FourFourTwo throughout Euro 2024, reporting on the tournament. In addition to his journalist work, Mewis is also the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team. Now working as a digital marketing coordinator at Harrogate Town, too, Mewis counts some of his best career moments as being in the iconic Spygate press conference under Marcelo Bielsa and seeing his beloved Leeds lift the Championship trophy during lockdown.
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