FEATURE | PSG’s Ousmane Dembélé – Europe’s in-form player and Ballon d’Or contender | OneFootball

Ousmane Dembélé (27), for much of his career, has been derided, not for his overall level but for his finishing ability. His technical ability has rarely come into question with Luis Enrique praising the France international for being the “most destabilising player in the world”. His ability to isolate players one-on-one, attract opponents and then take them out of the game, has been a facet of his play ever since he broke through at Stade Rennais.

However, there was a common perception that Dembélé’s progress stalled, that the major aspects of his game that needed to be refined – his finishing and his decision-making in the final third – were never developed, or at least not sufficiently to allow him to be considered among the world’s elite. 2025 has been the year in which the former Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona winger changed those perceptions.

Kylian Mbappé’s departure from PSG in the summer provided a window of opportunity for Dembélé. Towards the end of his five-year stint, Mbappé had been played centrally with Dembélé, as he always has, playing out on the right. With Gonçalo Ramos injured and Randal Kolo Muani ostracised, Dembélé saw opportunities to play more centrally increase in recent months and to good effect.

Dembélé no stranger to playing centrally

It isn’t the first time that Dembélé was tried centrally, as his former Rennes teammate Gelson Fernandes recalls. “For me, where Ousmane is most dangerous is in the No.10, behind the striker. I remember a match that we won 5-2 against Marseille (18th March 2016) where he played as a No.10 and was great simply because he is more dangerous [there]. In this position, he is really incisive but he needs a No.9 in front of him,” Fernandes told L’Équipe.

Dembélé was trialled in the position towards the end of last season with mixed results. With Luis Enrique favouring a highly technically gifted player in the No.9 position, it was a logical experiment and one that would be repeated to even greater effect this season.

Less involved in build-up than he was on the right of the attack, he has been the benefactor of the service provided. João Neves, Desiré Doué, Bradley Barcola and more recently Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, have all been adept in picking out Dembélé, who has quickly adopted a striker’s instinct for finding space and finishing simple chances. “In the middle, he hasn’t scored the most difficult goals. Even I would have scored them!” joked Stade Brestois manager Eric Roy earlier this year.

But there is a beauty in simplicity and one that is not lost on Dembélé himself. “Until now, I played on the right of midfield, hugging the touchline. It was more difficult to score goals. I had to dribble past three or four players before being able to score,” said the Frenchman.

Two-footedness put to good effect

That is not such an issue with Dembélé featuring centrally with many of his goals being taken first time. There he benefits from his two-footedness. Alongside Mateo Retegui, Dembélé is the only player in Europe’s top five leagues to have scored more than five goals with his right foot (eight) and left foot (seven). “I don’t know if I’m left-footed or right-footed,” he famously previously said. In crucial, high-pressure moments, he is showing that he is both.

Dembélé now has 22 goal contributions in his last 17 games and an incredible 18 goals in all competitions since the turn of the calendar year. His latest came in the 4-1 demolition of Lille OSC at the weekend. “We played a very good game against Lille. The manager asked us to play it in the same way as we would in the Champions League or in Ligue 1 and we took the match seriously. That gave us the result,” Dembélé told Get French Football News.

He added, “We are very happy. We know that we have a very hard game (against Liverpool) on Wednesday but we wanted to continue our great run (unbeaten in Ligue 1 this season). We had to be serious against Lille to take the three points.”  Dembélé has since been awarded the UNFP Player of the Month Award for January, whilst he and PSG team-mate Achraf Hakimi have also been nominated for the prize in the month of February.

Dembélé winning watch bet made with his friend

The win against LOSC, and the manner of it, means that he and PSG head into the UEFA Champions League tie against Liverpool full of confidence. But Liverpool approach the match with plenty of confidence too. Like PSG, the Merseyside club have a 13-point lead at the top of the league, whilst they also topped the standings during the League Phase of the Champions League.

Mohamed Salah has been the star man in Liverpool’s success this season. The Egyptian has an incredible 52 goal contributions, including 30 goals, four more than Dembélé this season. The pair will face each other at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday in what is not only a battle against two of the most in-form sides in Europe, but also a battle against two of the frontrunners for the Ballon d’Or.

“Given his form at the minute, he shouldn’t set himself any limits,” Mbappé told L’Équipe, referencing Dembélé’s recent and unexpected emergence as a clinical No.9. “He needs to continue like he is and at the end of the year, he’ll have plenty of watches,” joked the France captain, referencing a bet that Dembélé made with a friend whereby the more goals he scores, the more Patek and Rolex watches he wins. But should he continue on his current trajectory, Dembélé could possess more than just a few new watches by the end of the year. Silverware is in the offing. Another Ligue 1 title? Almost certainly. Another Coupe de France? Likely. A Champions League and even the Ballon d’Or? Those will be harder to obtain but they certainly are not beyond Dembélé and PSG, as they prepare for their toughest test of the season.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle