Opinions are divided on Ousmane Dembélé. The 100 million man is always in the spotlight. But his sporting achievements with FC Barcelona are rarely responsible for this.
His change from Borussia Dortmund to Barca is just one of the scandals the 22-year-old has allowed himself. A lack of professionalism, frequent delays and recurring injuries endanger the career of a child prodigy.
Now Dembélé suffered a torn muscle and will be out of the tournament until the beginning of next season. He will also miss the European Championship. How injuries and other problems stopped a child prodigy – SPORT1 takes a look at the Dembélé file.
Summer 2017: After only one – but outstanding – Bundesliga season, the Frenchman strikes from BVB to Barcelona, misses team training without excuse on 10 August and is subsequently suspended by Germany’s top club.
The transfer posse goes back and forth before the Dortmunders agree on a release of 105 million euros with the Catalans, although this may increase with bonus payments of up to 42 million euros.
In the documentary “Ballon sur Bitume” the winged racer takes a deep look: “What’s done is done. That’s the way it happened. At the end of the day, we are all winners. I regret nothing”, says the ex-Dortmunder about his struck change, which is not his first.
Already at his youth club from Rennes the Frenchman wanted to strike away. “I’m done with football, you make me sick,” Dembélé is said to have written to his sports director in 2015 in a text message, reports Mikael Silvestre, then sports advisor in Rennes, in the “Sport Bild”.
However, Dembélé will arrive at the season opener in Barcelona after his BVB strike but with a training deficit and will have to train individually first. “I ran a bit in the afternoon, but the last five days it was very warm and that’s where I left it,” Dembélé is quoted in the Spanish press at the time.
In his 2017/18 debut season, Dembélé will be out of action for almost three and a half months at Barca due to a thigh injury (suffered on Matchday 2) – in the end, he will have 13 scorer points in 24 appearances.
In February 2018, a 36-hour party trip to Marrakech/Morocco and Paris between two league matches will cause a stir. At that time, a club spokesman plays it down: “In your spare time, you can do whatever you want.” But the escapades increase.