Unless the situation turns around, Ousmane Dembélé will become the eighth recruit for the Paris transfer window this summer. After Manuel Ugarte, Lucas Hernandez, Milan Skriniar, Marco Asensio, Lee Kang-in, Arnau Tenas and Cher Ndour, the French international arrives in Paris, with the aim of strengthening an attacking sector that has not been extensive to date.
With the departure of Lionel Messi in the United States and the imbroglio around Kylian Mbappé, whose situation is still as unclear, Luis Enrique needs reinforcements on the front of the attack, ten days before the resumption of the League 1 against Lorient. Even if the crucial lack is mainly in the center-forward position, PSG must also expand on the wings. Can Ousmane Dembélé meet the capital club’s immediate needs?
Revealed at Stade Rennes in 2016, the winger specialist in hooks had a dazzling trajectory: transferred to Dortmund barely six months after his debut in L1, he joined the following year, in 2017, Barça for 135 million euros. euros. But after six seasons, Dembélé has never managed to fully convince in Catalonia. The fault in the first place with physical glitches which have always accompanied him: there are in all 14 injuries with the Blaugrana, often including muscular problems. For example, at the start of 2023, the 26-year-old missed three months of competition with a hamstring injury.
The list of injuries
The 2018 world champion missed a total of 119 games with Barça, an average of twenty games per season. For a PSG accustomed to a recurring infirmary problem, like Neymar and Verratti, Dembélé is not the most reliable from this point of view. And beyond the injuries, the performances of the French international will not leave an unforgettable memory at the Catalan club.
Coming to replace Neymar who was then joining the French capital, he never knew how to be the determining factor of a Barça which gradually withered away on the European scene. In 185 appearances, he was involved in 85 goals (40 goals scored and 45 assists), an honorable record but far from initial expectations.
However, his successive coaches have always believed in him, like Xavi. “He’s a player who, as I said on the day of my presentation, has a lot of qualities. He makes the difference, he’s a dagger and I see on the faces of the teams how they suffer with him […] I talk a lot with Ousmane and I see extraordinary qualities. For me, he is one of the best in his position in the world,” the Barça coach said last January.
On the pitch, Ousmane Dembélé’s profile remains rare: a confirmed international capable of dribbling, taking depth and causing differences on one side. Luis Enrique is also one of the main architects of his arrival, he who appreciates this type of element for his 4-3-3, where offensive players will have the freedom to undertake. From a financial point of view, a clause of 50 million euros is totally within the ropes of PSG.
