Ousmane Dembele was once one of the most talked-about footballers on the planet and he was hyped up to the levels of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. In 2018, he was Kylian Mbappe, the Erling Haaland, the next big thing that no big clubs could miss out upon. With the amount of potential the player was showing, it is no wonder that fans of Barcelona had a lot of expectations when he came into the club. He was supposed to be the one to change the whole dimension of the club, score goals, complete the iconic trio of MSN again, alas he failed miserably.
The 24-year-old had all the potential in the world and was given a lot of backing from the Barcelona board. He was even named as one of the untouchables by Joan Laporta. Xavi Hernandez, the current Barca manager and forever legend, stated many times that Dembele was one of the most crucial players on the team and there was no way he was going to be sold. Hernandez knows the potential the player has and wanted to structure the team in the best possible way by including him in it. However, things do not always go to plan and Dembele will surely be going to another club.
The player has made a decision, the club has made a decision and unfortunately, the two decisions cannot co-exist. The demands made by the player are unreasonably high and he has not made enough contributions to the team to warrant the amount he is requesting. Barca are in a sensitive position as well and one wrong move could put the whole club in financial jeopardy. Thus, this makes a definitive end to Dembele’s Barca career so now let’s take a look at the reason why he was brought into the club and why a player with such promise failed to deliver. Here is Dembele’s Barca story.
When was Ousmane Dembele brought to Barcelona?
The player arrived in 2017, just a few weeks after Neymar left the club. He was supposed to be the direct replacement for the Brazilian winger however, given the fact that he was only 20 years old at that time, Barca were taking a huge gamble on the player. The winger had not established himself as one of the best in the world, in fact he only had one good season with Borussia Dortmund before he was moved on to the Catalans for a huge profit.
Ousmane Dembele only played the French league and the German league before coming to La Liga and it is safe to say that he was more comfortable in those leagues since it is a bit less physical in nature. A series of injuries did not help his term in Barca either and soon he was labeled as the panic buy by Barca. He was not the only player, however, whom Barcelona bought to fix holes in the team. Players such as Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Greizmann were all superstars but the club did not think about how they would fit into the team before buying them.