Last Tuesday night, after Paris Saint-Germain wrapped up a convincing 3-0 win over Brest in their UEFA Champions League knockout phase playoff first-leg at Guingamp, Ousmane Dembélé, who had just scored a brace in the game, was still a bit grumpy. When I bumped into him right by the PSG dressing room, there was no smile on his face despite having netted 18 goals in his last 12 appearances, even with not scoring against Toulouse on Saturday after a second-half cameo.
Why the grumpiness then? Vitinha, who was next to him, was teasing him a bit for his demeanor. It turns out Dembélé was not too happy because he missed a couple of chances. “I should have scored four,” he told some of his teammates.
No one in the PSG dressing room begrudged the 2018 World Cup winner for missing two chances in the second half of the game, one of them going just wide and the other smothered by Brest keeper Marco Bizot. After all, his teammates know too well that he is their X-Factor.
“It is incredible to have him in this form for us,” Vitinha told ESPN after Tuesday’s victory. “He is unbelievable at the moment, and we always knew he had it in him.”
This is the new Dembélé for you. Past versions wouldn’t have been too concerned with missing chances. He used to be (and still is at times) a winger, and wingers are historically on the pitch to get assists (which he also does very well), not to score. Now, things are different. In Luis Enrique’s PSG, the most in-form team in Europe right now and among the most entertaining, Dembélé plays as the No.9. A false-nine, sure, but one who has to score. And boy, he is just doing that.
A quick review of his mind-blowing numbers:
• 10 goals (two hat tricks and two braces) in four games over 15 days, prior to the Toulouse one. The maximum Lionel Messi scored in a four-game span is 16, back in 2013. Cristiano Ronaldo’s best? 12
• 15 goals in nine matches since the start of 2025, more than any other player in Europe
• 18 goals since the start of Dec. 2024, more than any other player in Europe
• He has more goals win 2025 (15 in 9 games) than in the whole of 2024 (13 in 42 games)
• Scored least a goal in eight consecutive matches for only the fifth time in PSG history after Carlos Bianchi, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar twice
• First ever PSG player to score in the first eight games of a calendar year. The previous record was five
• First player in the big 5 leagues since Sergio Aguero in 2018 to score at least 15 goals in the first two months of a calendar year
• 29 goals and assists 29 games in all competitions this season
Does any of this mean Dembélé is the best player in the world right now? L’Equipe earnestly asked the question on Wednesday, and it does feel premature. You can argue that the teams he scored against during this impressive run are not the best, but still: you can only beat what is in front of you. And to be fair, Lyon, Manchester City, Stuttgart, Monaco (twice) are no minnows.
Regardless, if you rate Dembélé’s level of opponent or not, if you think like the PSG players joke that he can win the Ballon d’Or if he continues like this, the main (and real only question) remains: how did he get here? What has turned him into a goal machine?
Luis Enrique said jokingly on Wednesday that we should ask the France forward what “he had for dinner at Christmas” to maybe explain his transformation. More seriously, the PSG manager also touched upon an interesting point.
Back in October, Dembélé was not picked in the squad that travelled to London to play Arsenal in the Champions League after he disagreed with his coach on one of his decisions.
“The best thing I did with Ousmane was to drop him for that game, which you all criticised me for,” said Luis Enrique in his Friday news conference. “Because then the rest, he did it himself, with his teammates and his team, with his confidence and his talent.”
The incident had a positive impact on the 27-year-old. He had a long chat with Luis Enrique in the days that followed, and the manager also started to play him more as a false 9, using him between the lines, closer to the goal and more in the box. Back then, the efficiency in front of goal was still not there, so Dembélé worked hard on improving his finishing. He did a lot of extra shooting drills after training, a lot of video analysis and visualization of what he was doing or not doing when he had chances.
At this point in the season, it’s very much Dembélé’s world and we are just living in it. He won’t score two goals a game every week, of course, but for now, he is walking on water as his hard work has paid off.
Let’s see how long Dembélé can stay at this level.
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