Have you been following the recent developments on the Ousmane Dembélé PSG transfer news? The 26-year-old Frenchman is linked with a move to PSG, and everything could be sealed over the next week or two. Of course, this is subject to a few finer details that must be ironed out between Barcelona and PSG. Yet it’s certainly looking likely that Dembélé will be playing back in his home country for the 23/24 season.
The reason I state this is that while Barcelona did offer Dembélé a new contract, the terms weren’t satisfactory enough for Dembélé to sign. Naturally, this opened up the possibility of an Ousmane Dembélé transfer to be completed during the summer window. And PSG are leading the way in the hunt to score the winger. However, I will leave all of that for another day.
Yet since we are on the verge of witnessing Dembélé depart a club that he has been a part of since 2017, it feels right to look back at his best moments in a Barcelona shirt. On that note, there are three stand-out moments for me that have occurred at different times. So let me highlight them now.
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His First Goal for Barcelona in 2018
For those who don’t know, Dembélé joined Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund for a staggering fee of €105 million. At the time, this made Ousmane Dembélé the second most valuable player (joint with Paul Pogba) in terms of overall fees paid in the world. Ironically, he took command of the number 11 shirt, which was previously worn by the most expensive player at that time, Neymar. So naturally, these were big shoes to fill.
Yet Dembélé seemed to relish the challenge, although it would take him more than six months to score his first goal for Barcelona. This is a monumental moment for any player when they come to a new club. And Dembélé saved it for a big moment, as he found the net when Barcelona took out Chelsea in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Dembele Goal (Barcelona 2-0 Chelsea) pic.twitter.com/Orq8ugbv81
— SportzVid – #GGMU 👹 (@SportzVid) March 14, 2018
Winning Goal vs Sevilla in Supercopa de España
Once Dembélé managed to find the net for Barcelona, as one can imagine, this relieved plenty of pressure. Subsequently, he was able to relax and start playing the kind of football that Barcelona had expected when they signed him in August 2017. On that note, my second favorite Dembélé moment at Barcelona came almost one year after he was signed. Specifically, Barcelona played against Sevilla in the Supercopa, and he was the guy that bagged the title winner in a 2-1 victory.
UEFA Champions League ‘Goal of the Week’
Since both of the previous Dembélé moments have involved goals, I may as well stick with this theme for the third. Only this time around, the goal was given international recognition. Basically, when Barcelona played Tottenham in the Champions League on December 11th, 2018, Dembélé decided that he would be the guy to carry his team to victory. This mindset shone through in his solo goal that saw him breeze past the Tottenham defenders like they weren’t even there.
Ultimately, he snuck the ball beyond Lloris and took home the Goal of the Week award in the process – a huge achievement.
