A Year Without Ousmane Dembélé

The passage of Ousmane Dembele (27 years) by the FC Barcelona It was full of light and shadow, more darkness than light, but just when it seemed that the Frenchman could be important once and for all and could consolidate himself with Xavi Hernandezdecided to leave the Catalan club through the back door. But not before starring in a soap opera with his renewal, demonstrating his love for the club, backing out, getting booed by the entire Camp Nou, reconciling with the fans and, finally, setting off the bomb last year in the United States. All of this wrapped in a true mysticism that, surely, not even Ousmane himself is aware of.

As if they were parallel cases, the case Dembelelike Neymar’s, broke out in the United States preseason. That summer, videos of him himself came out Ousmane confessing that he preferred to win a Champions League as a Barça player rather than repeat the World Cup and the Frenchman showed his love for the Barça on their networks repeatedly, an affection that seems to have diluted after an offer from the PSG.

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His departure could not have been any other way, indecipherable, just as he was both on and off the field, with the anecdotal wedding with his wife, which no one in the squad had ever heard about. RMC announced at the end of July a supposed interest from PSG in paying the 50 million euro release clause, while Dembele He seemed uninhibited in the first two friendlies, as if it had nothing to do with him, Barça distanced themselves from this idea by categorizing the winger as untransferable and assuring that he wanted to stay, but that was not the case. In the blink of an eye his mind changed and Luis Enrique convinced him to sign for the same club as his friend. Mbappé.

At the beginning of August and after a few days with endless rumours, a disappointed Xavi confirmed the departure of Ousmane after the last match of the American tour against the Milan: “I am a little disappointed, yes. We cannot compete with what PSG offers him. He was very simple and very direct. It was a personal matter for him.”he stressed. Dembeleas the saying goes, left Barça with ‘two chairs and sitting on the floor’, an unexpected departure that upset the sporting planning. His last service to the Catalan club? Scoring against the eternal rival, as he also did Neymar.

Not everything was bad, since the Barça has found gold after his departure. Xavi Hernandez He bet on a very young man Lamine Yamal who is wowing the world after just one season in the elite. Joao Felix also arrived on loan, but did not quite gel.

His representative is also far away, Moussa Sissokoa name that all Barça fans will remember, and above all, Mateu Alemany, who ended up ‘fed up’ with the constant back-and-forth that any negotiation involving Dembélé entailed. We also remember the statement from the former Barça executive himself, highlighting in January 2022 that Dembele I would not play any more for the rest of the season because I did not “was committed to the project”. Finally Xavi made him play and thanks to the insistence of the player from Egar, Barça was able to ‘scrape’ something for a Dembélé who signed his renewal at the last minute (nothing unusual for ‘Ous).

The Champions League knockout round, the latest ‘stab’

This ‘stabbing’ was not the last thing Ousmane had in store for the Catalans. April 2024 and the draw pits Barça against PSG. The Frenchman arrived at that tie with one goal in nine months, against Barça he scored two and was key to Luis Enrique’s team going through. The image of the former Dortmund player smiling on the bench at the Estadi Olímpic after the Parisians’ comeback will also remain in the memories, and anger, of the Catalans. His love for Barça also disappeared in those quarter-finals, when he angrily celebrated the two goals.

Whatever the case, everything indicates that the best thing for both of them was for them to part ways. The toxic relationship ended exactly a year ago, on August 12, and neither the Barça remembers Dembeleneither Dembele of the Barça. A million dollars were paid, he was trusted after many injuries, there was a break-up, a reconciliation and finally the final separation. After watering a flower too much, it ends up dying.