Barcelona will meet their former acquaintance Ousmane Dembele again in the Champions League quarter-finals. The Frenchman has continuously appeared in many newspapers throughout his career and unfortunately has mostly been involved in injuries.
Especially during his time at Camp Nou, when Barcelona's expectations for Dembele were eroded by a series of different injuries. However, the 26-year-old's career has turned a new page since joining Paris St Germain.
This season, Dembele has missed a few matches but mainly to ensure his fitness, not due to injury. In the Champions League, Dembele has become an important and irreplaceable player for Luis Enrique.
It can be said that the striker born in 1997 is experiencing a new life at Parc des Princes. Dembele was almost away from the treatment room and resuscitated as completely as possible.
This player only felt discomfort in his thigh once during the season and once again suffered a minor muscle strain. Dembele missed games against Strasbourg and Metz for the two reasons. In addition, he did not play against Motpellier but due to an ear problem.
At Barcelona before, it was a much more severe reality for Dembele. The 26-year-old was expected to make a difference and become a key figure, but injuries ruined everything. 119 are the number of matches Dembele has missed due to injury while playing for Blaugrana.
In the 2017 2018 season, his first season playing for Barca, Dembele was hospitalized in September. It was a heavy blow when the striker had just started his time at Camp Nou. That season, Dembele missed a total of 27 games and had to miss 136 days.
Entering the 2018-2019 season, the obsession with injuries repeated, although Dembele was only absent from 13 matches. The worst was in the 2019-2020 season when the Frenchman missed 38 games and was out for 333 days.
In the 2020-21 season, adjusting living habits and exercising has helped Dembele reduce injuries. He has only missed 6 games in the campaign. But that summer, disaster hit. Dembele suffered a serious injury on his return to France and was out until November 1. In his final season with the Blaugrana, Dembele also missed 19 matches.
In addition to reducing injuries at PSG, Dembele is also breaking his assist record. So far, the Frenchman has had 13 assists and shows no signs of stopping. That number also equals Dembele's best record at Barca in the 2021-2022 season. However, in terms of the number of goals, he has only scored 1 goal.
"Ousmane Dembele is a player, technically, I can say he is almost unbeaten with both feet in goal. You don't know if he will play on the left or right. I'm not worried about his finishing, that will improve. What he creates, just through his actions, is very positive for the team," said Luis Enrique of the French international.
If there is one tournament where the Spanish "captain" has full confidence in Dembele, it is the Champions League. Dembele has started 7 out of 8 matches of PSG in this playground. The 26-year-old has only been absent for one game due to a number of free kicks. Not only did Dembele start, he also completed 95% of his minutes and had an assist in the match against Real Sociedad.
In that context, Dembele will meet coach Xavi and many other teammates at Barca in the Champions League. Many people probably remember Xavi's controversial comment about Dembele: "He could be the best player in the world in his position".
Although he cannot confirm that, for now, the 26-year-old player will be a dangerous threat to Barca in this reunion.
