BarcelonaOusmane Dembélé has always had a reputation for being someone whose sheets get stuck. So much so that, day after day, an anecdote was produced that his neighbors remember. Valverde’s Barça trained at 11 a.m. and the team was summoned to the Ciutat Esportiva at 10 a.m. Well, at that time the door of his garage opened and a golden Audi shot out and entered one of the entrances of the Dalt roundabout. He was, clearly, the Barça winger.
It’s been a few years now and the club explains that Dembélé’s behavior has improved a lot. “It’s much more professional,” they point to the dressing room. The winger has stolen the heart of Xavi Hernández, the coach who trusted him when he looked like a footballer destined to leave Barça through the back door. After renewing this summer -controversies on the sidelines, with his representative-, Dembélé is facing a year in which he wants to vindicate himself as that player who in his day cost 105 million, who in Barcelona has hardly taken his head. At the moment, on the North American tour, he has been the star of the match against Juventus (2-2), where he has scored both goals for Blaugrana.
Beyond the success and enhancing his virtues – the change of rhythm, the dribbling and the finish –, Dembélé has also been the protagonist of the celebration. He has put both hands together and put them next to his head, making the gesture of going to sleep. Exactly the same thing that NBA player Stephen Curry did when he had a good performance and had a message for the critics. A way to tell them to shut up and go to sleep. After two goals, and despite having always been in the eye of the hurricane, Dembélé showed in the Dallas match that he also has a very wide back.
“He is a different, special player,” said Xavi Hernández after the match. The coach expects Dembélé to, as in the duel against Juve, be a footballer who “makes a difference” and insists that he “contributes a lot to the way Barça play”. “He must be more consistent, score more goals and make more assists, which he already improved last season”, pointed out the coach, who sees Dembélé as “a happy player”, who “is always involved and has shown it” , and that’s why he insisted so much that he stay.
Ousmane Dembélé seems to have left behind the ordeal of injuries. He has continuity and is one of Xavi’s favorites to play on the right wing, although he can also play on the left. Last year he had Adama Traoré as his main competitor, a player who arrived on loan in the winter market. But the Hospitalet player didn’t finish making the difference and returned to Wolverhampton, his club of origin. This year, on the other hand, the competition will be fiercer, as Barça have signed Raphinha for around 60 million. And Raphinha, who came from Leeds, already showed in the classic played in Miami that he had come to the Camp Nou to do great things, like a goal for the square.
Dembélé’s big goal is twofold: to get a place at Barça and enter France’s call-up for the World Cup in Qatar. At the Barcelona club, he has a two-year contract and a release clause – taking into account market prices – of 100 million. This season will decide if he finally explodes as a world-class player or if, on the contrary, he falls back into ostracism. The future is in your hands.
