When Ousmane Dembele arrived at Barcelona for a nine-figure charge to switch Neymar in the summertime of 2017, the hype was palpable.
The French star, who had simply turned 20, was shortly dubbed a future Ballon d’Or winner and inheritor obvious to Lionel Messi, however after a debut which noticed him present an help following a cameo off the bench, he suffered a hamstring harm in his first LaLiga begin, ruling him out for 4 months.
What adopted was one thing of a stop-start first three seasons in Catalonia, together with a 2019-20 marketing campaign which noticed him make simply 5 league appearances, earlier than he started to clock up extra video games.
Ousmane Dembele on his early Barca struggles
“It was sophisticated, particularly as I used to be coming to the membership after simply 18 months as an expert, with six months at Rennes after which a yr at Dortmund. You arrive at 20 years outdated in a locker room like Barcelona with all the celebrities, with all of the gamers I dreamed of taking part in for… it was simply distinctive. Afterwards, you needed to adapt. I wasn’t fortunate for 3 or 4 years with accidents. When you might play, you needed to adapt. While you couldn’t, you needed to keep sturdy. However I used to be doing what I really like and I used to be on the membership of my goals, Barcelona. It wasn’t simple, however after three or 4 years, issues have been a lot better.”
Dembele’s Nou Camp exit got here in 2023, when he joined Paris Saint-Germain, with the participant fast to dismiss the hypothesis on the time which prompt he didn’t benefit from the respect and esteem of his team-mates.
“I’m pleased with all the things that occurred at Barcelona, as a result of that’s actually the place I grew as an individual, each on the pitch and off it,” he continues. “I additionally made a variety of pals in Barcelona, with whom I nonetheless speak quite a bit. So it was simply an distinctive time for me and, above all, it was a time of studying.”
Dembele’s marriage to his girlfriend Rima in December 2021 and the delivery of his daughter the next September appeared to deliver a couple of change in his perspective.
“As a result of I arrived at Barcelona with only a yr and a half as an expert behind me, I didn’t go to the fitness center a lot, I went straight on to the pitch with a variety of power – and a few expertise, too.
“After one harm, two, three, 4 accidents, you perceive it’s a must to care for your physique, that high-level soccer is demanding and it’s not nearly expertise, or waking up and going straight on to the pitch. You perceive that something can occur.
“I understood that I needed to work, that I needed to get stronger, that I needed to eat effectively, sleep effectively. I understood all of that. And there you go, it’s paying off immediately at Paris Saint-Germain. I’m glad.”
These modifications are maybe one of many explanation why he has averted harm since his time at Barcelona, with Dembele admitting that he is aware of his personal physique much better as of late.
“Completely,” he says. “I do know my physique completely, how briskly I ought to go, after I shouldn’t go. After I’m informed to not go over 30km/h, I don’t go over 31; I keep at 30. I do know after I’m drained, after I shouldn’t prepare, after I ought to prepare and after I must strengthen myself, too. Now, for the previous three or 4 years, I actually comprehend it by coronary heart.”
“After I retire… what don’t I need to eat?” he asks. “As for hamburgers and pizzas, there are all the time some after matches. Not on a regular basis, however particularly after video games. All gamers eat hamburgers or pizzas after matches. I don’t eat an excessive amount of chocolate, so it’s OK. However I nonetheless eat hamburgers and pizzas after video games, and that’s not going to cease.”
