Champions League: ‘Old boy’ Dembele on a mission for PSG against Barca

The focus of Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League quarterfinal matchup against Barcelona on Wednesday will primarily be on Kylian Mbappe, but Ousmane Dembele will also be a key player for the French team against his old team.

Mbappe, who is anticipated to play for Real Madrid versus Barcelona the next season, has scored 39 goals for PSG thus far. Dembele is the sole owner.Though Barcelona is well aware of what the 26-year-old winger is capable of when the ball is at his feet, the player—who was dubbed a "tearaway" by the publication Le Parisien last week—offers something unique.
Last August, following six seasons in Catalonia, the French star came home, with PSG reportedly paying 50 million euros euros ($54.3m) to sign him on a five-year deal.

That relatively paltry sum in the modern transfer market for a world-class player corresponded to the amount of his release clause at cash-strapped Barca.
The Normandy native said that Luis Enrique had previously sought to sign him when Dembele was making waves at Rennes, but moving to Paris allowed them to collaborate.

"PSG had been considering me for a while. The first conversation happened when I was still at Dortmund, but my goal was still to play for Barcelona, Dembele said earlier in the season to the sports daily L'Equipe.

He acknowledged that leaving Barcelona had not been an easy choice, especially considering how well he had performed at the end of his tenure at Camp Nou under Xavi Hernandez's leadership.

"These two years were my best because I had a coach that believed in me." However, I desired to sign with PSG. It wasn't only about leaving Barcelona; it had more to do with Paris making me reconsider," Dembele stated.

Thus, it is by fate that he and Luis Enrique will face Barcelona in the quarterfinals of the Champions League this year.

The last time the two teams faced up, in the round of 16, in 2021, Dembele was wearing a Barcelona jersey when Mbappe scored a deadly hat-trick in the first leg in Catalonia.

Their previous meeting took place in the infamous 2017 round of 16 match, in which Luis Enrique's Barcelona team overcame a 4-0 first-leg deficit to win 6-1 in the second leg.
In August of that year, a humiliated PSG exacted revenge by signing Neymar Junior from Barcelona and spending the 222 million euros required to trigger his release clause.

- 6 years with Barcelona

Barcelona spent a tonne of money on replacements for their Brazilian superstar after being taken by surprise and becoming alarmed.

They made a move for Dembele, who had just finished an incredible season with Borussia Dortmund in Germany at the age of twenty. They consented to shell up an additional 105 million euros for a player who is still far from being the finished product.

That cost, along with the even larger sum spent to acquire Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool a few months later, signalled the beginning of Barcelona's severe financial difficulties, which led to Lionel Messi's departure for PSG in 2021.

For Barcelona, Dembele made 185 appearances and scored 40 goals, which is a far higher strike rate than he has at PSG, where he has only scored one goal in 34 games, against Monaco in November.

The current coach of Rennes, Julien Stephan, who coached a juvenile Dembele at the Brittany club, stated last week that "if he were a better finisher he might have won the Ballon d'Or."

Playing primarily on the right flank, Dembele has at least contributed more assists than any other player in France this season. However, he may need to contribute more goals after Mbappe leaves.

But in two crucial recent games—the Champions League last-16 second leg away to Real Sociedad and the matchup with strong domestic rivals Marseille—the lightning-quick, fleet-footed dribbler has been used in a withdrawn centre offensive role.

Luis Enrique recently predicted that Ousmane would perform much better when he played through the centre.

"His lack of goal scoring is not a concern of mine. We watch him in training, so I have no doubt that he will get better. He is an almost unstoppable player who adds value to the squad in a lot of ways.