Montanier gave Dembélé his debut and never doubted him

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·25 de setembro de 2025

Montanier gave Dembélé his debut and never doubted him

Philippe Montanier, former coach of Stade Rennais, spoke to TMW about the early days of Ousmane Dembélé (28), now a Ballon d'Or winner and Paris Saint-Germain player. At the time, the French coach had spotted his exceptional potential and did not hesitate to integrate him very early into the first team.

Montanier: "He deserves to be congratulated for his progress"

"He was 17 years old and had a huge margin for improvement. He was playing in the amateur team, had incredible statistics, and I brought him into the first team, even though he was still very young. I really saw that he had enormous potential. Obviously, I couldn't have predicted that he would win the Ballon d'Or, but I realized I had a great talent on my hands. It's no coincidence that he was already a starter soon after. In any case, he deserves to be congratulated for having progressed, learned, and improved until he reached the peak of his career."

It's always rewarding for a coach to see one of his protégés achieve the greatest things. Dembélé took his time, but it's fair to say that everyone knew he had gold at his feet. We just didn't know if that talent would explode at the highest level, with all the demands of football.

Vídeos OneFootball

Dembélé, as talented as he is, will have to roll up his sleeves again to keep up his momentum. He has everything he needs to succeed in Paris in the coming years, but only he knows if the sacrifices required to reach the Holy Grail are not too costly. During this 2025/2026 season, he will be closely watched—it's up to him to prove himself.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.