Ousmane Dembele's 'mind-blowing' rise: How PSG star finally fulfilled potential ahead of UEFA Champions League clash v Aston Villa
Published 08/04/2025 at 14:57 GMT+1
Ahead of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa, we take an in-depth look at the remarkable resurgence of Ousmane Dembele. After an up-and-down spell with Barcelona, Dembele returned to his native France with PSG. Under manager Luis Enrique, Dembele is now the talismanic leader of one of the most exciting young attacking units in Europe.
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On July 14, 2022, FC Barcelona confirmed that they had reached a contract extension with French forward Ousmane Dembele.
This came after Dembele’s previous agreement had been allowed to expire with the club in financial trouble, but the signing of the new deal was a coup for Barca as the club and manager Xavi Hernandez still believed in the winger, despite criticism from some sections of the fanbase.
A little over a year later, Dembele was out of the Camp Nou door, being paraded around the Parc des Princes as the latest piece to the everlasting jigsaw that is Paris Saint-Germain.
The summer of 2023 was one of change for PSG. Neymar left, so too did club talisman Marco Verratti. In the dugout Christophe Galtier’s brief reign came to an end, with former Barcelona manager Luis Enrique coming in.
The club were visibly trying to get younger. Manuel Ugarte, Lee Kang-in and Bradley Barcola all arrived, while Goncalo Ramos, Lucas Beraldo and Gabriel Moscardo would come in January.
But Dembele was the headline act, signed for a cut-price deal as he entered the final year of his Barca contract, a new French superstar signed with the knowledge that Kylian Mbappe would most likely be leaving the following summer.
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For many, the inevitable departure of Mbappe to Real Madrid, following the exits of Neymar and Lionel Messi, rendered PSG as a club irrelevant. This is perhaps harsh, but with Ligue 1’s general decline on the whole, many believed that without those three players PSG would not be able to make any real noise in the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League.
Yet here we are. PSG are into the quarter-finals of the competition – where they will play Aston Villa – having knocked out Premier League champions-elect Liverpool in the previous round, and right at the heart of their sensational season has been Dembele.
And it is not just that he has stepped up following the departure of Mbappe, it is that he has gone to a level that people did not think was actually possible.
Throughout Dembele’s career, from Rennes to Dortmund and then Baca and PSG, he had only scored 10 or more goals in a league season once, his breakout campaign with Rennes where he scored 12. Factoring in all competitions, he has only reached double digits four times; that Rennes season, his debut year in Dortmund where he scored 10, his second season with Barca where he scored 14 and then the 2020-21 season with the Catalans when he scored 11.
This season he has 32 goals across all competitions.
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In his entire time in Spain with Barcelona – that is six seasons – Dembele scored 40 goals in total. He might surpass that in just one season this year. He has already gone past his combined goals and assists figure (for league and European football) for the two previous seasons put together.
| Ousmane Dembele last three seasons (all comps) | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
| Goals | 8 | 6 | 32 |
| Assists | 9 | 12 | 7 |
| Goals+Assists | 17 | 18 | 39 |
| Total Shots | 74 | 88 | 159 |
| Shots on Target | 29 | 28 | 74 |
| Shot Conversion Rate | 10.81 | 6.82 | 20.13 |
| Minutes Played | 2160 | 2855 | 2631 |
"It’s not [a] surprise, it’s just mind-blowing," explains Eurosport France’s Cyril Morin. "We were excited when he returned to France, of course, especially because he was joining PSG, it was a very good signing in terms of the finances [€50m] and he has this special skillset that makes people like him.
"His duo with Mbappe was also very exciting. But, with him, there were always the same questions: is he able to do [a] full season without injuries? Is he able to score or be decisive more than in Barcelona or the France national team?
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"The question mark around him was there. Before this season, Dembele was a promise but also a deception, as you know he can dribble past all the defence but he can’t finish after all that. This is the big, big change now.
"For us, Dembele was always [a] winger, very good at creating space with his dribbling but so bad - I stress, so bad - at finishing.
"It was almost a joke for journalists because every trainer that worked with Dembele said to us: ‘I can assure you that, during training, he’s very precise and scores a lot.’ But nobody really thought of him as a striker. But Luis Enrique saw things that nobody did, he has a big, big role in this."
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Dembele has played most of his games this season in his usual position on the right-wing, but his second-most used position has been as a central striker, rather than on the left.
This is a player who has not only had his entire career plagued by inconsistencies in front of goal, but perhaps the most famous moment of his career was a miss when he passed up a great chance to give Barca a 4-0 first-leg lead over Liverpool in the 2019 semi-final. The Reds, of course, would famously overturn the 3-0 scoreline in the return match, with many highlighting Dembele's fluffed chance as a decisive moment in the tie.
It’s an incredibly ballsy call from Enrique, but it does mean that he can play a front three of Dembele, Desire Doue and Barcola, which is frankly terrifying for any defence to deal with.
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The shift inside seems to have given Dembele the confidence that he can be a true goalscorer.
It is really hard to overstate just how hard a time he was having towards the end at Barcelona. You can see that in recent comments from Mbappe on Dembele’s form.
"Seeing him do this moves me personally because I know how much he's been criticised and mocked," Mbappe told Le Parisien in the March international break.
"Ousmane reached maturity at 27. Some might have thought he was arriving late, but it's the normal evolution of a footballer, who reaches his full potential at 27."
TNT Sports expert Joe Cole said in February that he thinks perhaps the extra responsibility has been beneficial for Dembele.
"In Dembele, they've got probably the most in-form player, let alone winger, in European football. And when he's on form, with his attributes, he's unstoppable.
"It’s a lot of money that clubs have spent on this man and he’s shown flashes of it," Cole said before PSG's win. "I do love him and admire him, he makes things happen. He’s a throwback, he gets the ball and he’s direct.
"I think he’s enjoying being the main man. He’s not been given that, he’s taken that in his group of players, and I think he’s really enjoying that."
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'Unstoppable' Dembele the most 'in-form' player in Europe
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Enrique’s clear belief in Dembele has to help too. "He was super excited to have him," Morin says. "His partnership with Hakimi was already a big part of PSG’s performances last year.
"He saw Dembele as an X-factor, someone able to provide quick transitions but also able to make the difference in small spaces. He loves Ousmane even if this season [in the game versus Arsenal for example], he sometimes reproaches him [for] his attitude/behaviour."
And we cannot talk about Dembele without talking about the injuries. The player picked up multiple hamstring injuries during his time at Barcelona, as well as a serious knee injury. At PSG he has been mostly an ever-present figure.
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Morin explains that Dembele "was sick of it so he decided to be more professional".
"This is just experience. For years, Dembele was very immature regarding his invisible work. Now, it has changed."
There is a reason that teams have spent over £200 million on Dembele throughout his career, he does things on a football pitch that few can.
For whatever reason, he was unable to show his true potential in Spain, but now, in France, it feels as if we are finally seeing the best of Ousmane Dembele, and that is a player that should strike fear into the hearts of every single team in the world.
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