PSG’s Ousmane Dembélé serves as the center of football’s chief late-stage Bloomer | Paris Saint-Germain

oUsmane Dembélé is right behind you and ahead of everyone, and that’s exactly where Luis Enrique has always imagined him. At the end of Paris Saint-Germain Destroy Real Madrid In the semifinals of the New Jersey Club World Cup this week, the coach announced the best player of the season “so far.” For 35 goals and 16 assists, that’s not that much, but a simpler thing. so Simple It took ten years to do it. But then, his national team manager Didier Deschamps in France did say that being late was “a little habit of him.”

OK, it Once was. If there is a portrait that defines the 90 minutes of the PSG team that can win all the victories, that is an image that embodies their transformation and Dembélé, then it may be That photo of him In the Champions League final, fixed on the edge of the Inter Milan region. His toes are lined, his eyes are narrow and fixed on Yann Sommer, like a leopard being ready to pounce on, a sprinter listening to a gun. It’s a relentlessly repeated scene where the opponent preys on another episode of Metropolitan Life on Wednesday. “I told him he was in a lot of urgency; he told me he had to do it,” said Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. “I had a half second of the idea.”

That’s half a second more than most people. The semi-finals were actually decided within 9 minutes, with PSG scoring twice. Both times, Madrid made mistakes, with Raúl Asencio and Antonio Rüdiger allowing the ball to escape: not much, but enough. Two times, Dembélé stayed alert, flashed and sneaked, and then: BAM. Like the antelope narrative by David Attenborough, Madrid’s defenders were done before they realized what was going on. “Scary,” Jürgen Klinsmann called it.

“They didn’t let Inter breathe, not even for a while,” said the German World Cup champion, who is analyzing the competition with FIFA’s technical research team. “They suffocated you from the first second; they started pitching and grabbing you. Against Madrid, yes, two goals were wrong, but they were forced to be forced; it was such a high media, so energetic, so aggressive, and frightening.” It started in Dembélé. “I will give Ballon d’Or to Mr. Ousmane Dembélé after the Champions League final.”That Lead the team. ”

“I’m not always like that,” Dembélé admits.

He is always unique: explosive, totally two feet, unpredictable. His Borussia Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel hopes that he will be on Sunday’s final rival Chelsea, and there’s a reason. The reason is also a reason – and the despair afterwards Neymar’s departure For PSG, it is true – Barcelona spent €145 million for him. Xavi Hernández insists that he can be the best player in the world Arrive at Camp Dano As a coach.

But this is 2021, and it is a rescue mission: Dembélé has been in Barcelona for four years, what Sometimes Too short, injury always intervenes, this feeling does not really take care of oneself’s inevitable feeling of being unfair. Two years later, Dembélé To a large extent irrelevant They did not regret his departure. When he was all in the battle with his contract, Condemn “ransomware”People want to know where this personality suddenly comes from. When President Joan Laporta said he was better than Kylian Mbappé, it was like Laporta. Usually, people laugh.

It turns out that he might be right. In the semifinalalso in this season. “If he doesn’t win Ballon d’Or, it’s the problem with Ballon d’Or,” said PSG’s president Nasser Al-Khelaifi. Moving to the center, the score this season is more than in the first five seasons. He scored against Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern, Arsenal and Manchester City. His role was decisive in the Champions League finals and the club World Cup semi-finals. He is the highest scorer for Ligue 1. Luis Enrique said you shouldn’t buy a Ballon d’Or D’ or a winner, maybe he has it.

Dembélé benefits from the system and benefits from it. Like a system, it is an ecosystem, a collective culture, and is simple and complex at the same time. Style, age, environment, opportunity are all important, partly built by time and timing. “Last year, I was empty because Kylian took it all again,” Dembélé joked, joked when he won the Player of the Year award in France. “He did it himself,” said Luis Enrique, who put forward the “extreme principle” in the words of Vincent Kompany.

“The coach changed a lot,” Dembele said.

Luis Enrique believed Dembélé from the very beginning, despite warnings. exist BarcelonaGerard Piqué joked that the team’s WhatsApp group reminded the kids “always late”, and Deschamps said Dembélé should be “careful” about his time to work. But even in private conversations, others fear that the French wouldn’t be able to apply the intensity that a potentially extreme manager demanded, and frankly, they wondered if he was too lazy to provide the promise he needed, and the coach was convinced. There may be criticisms of others, but there is always a defense of Dembélé. Yes, it could be – yes – just like he sometimes is on his own planet, but there is a player there.

“Dembélé has always been a phenomenon,” said Luis Enrique. “The thing is, you have to get the best version of Ousmane more deeply.”

his Version. Be proactive and pursue everything ruthlessly. “It’s not only a goal or a decisive pass, but his overall impact has made the team win the trophy,” said Luis Enrique. “He has shown himself to be a step. He’s the best player we can make a difference because he has faith.” The coach returns repeatedly, and it’s part of his game – collective contribution rather than individuals, the press rather than goals.

But they are not mutually exclusive; in fact, they are interdependent. Dembélé is cared for, embraced, trusted and made people feel important and made him aware of his obligations, demands. For a very strict coach, he likes to work with young players because they are faster, hungry, and almost always more stretchy, and it’s also about letting go, complicit, contacting. About warmth and support, faith. This relationship is particularly close to Dembélé (28 years old) is the oldest Dembélé in PSG.

Until the joke stops. Luis Enrique felt it necessary to punish his players for punishment for Indiscipline. “I have to make a tough decision, but I think it’s the best for the team and I’ll do it a hundred more times. We have to do and say the difficult things.

“Ousmane is a leader, but in what he does, not in words. Have you seen how he presses? Tell me the 9th place in Europe, the 9th place in Europe oppresses goalkeeper and such a central defender. When you are stressed like this, the rest must follow.”

When you press like this, you are also closer to the target and approaching the opportunity: higher intensity, more sensitive trigger points, but the total distance is reduced, and everything opens when you can snatch the ball in these positions. PSG plays with two defenders, through midfield spin and movement, the players carry the ball throughout the court, and all are the forwards of the dribble – “There are few dribbles, but we have five,” Luis Enrique said. This creates an environment suitable for players, especially Dembélé.

“You have a fake nine, a wide player, two feet long, and the freedom and mobility of space can be found on both sides.”[But] When you analyze Dembélé, you have to start with him, but start. PSG worked very hard to get the players ahead with hit percentage. People talk about their exercise on the ball, but that’s the same: the player provides reception, does not move on, continues to move on, provides again, does not understand, continues to move on. They are ruthless. They have great quality opportunities and work hard for it. It’s a lot of work, a lot of beliefs, an extreme belief and a player who likes this way. ”

They like it because it pays off, so it becomes self-continued, and each victory strengthens. Then there is something simple: Fun, enjoy, engagement. “It’s easy to find this sentence, but it’s actually more difficult to do it. [yet] Luis Enrique said. “As a striker, this is the system you like. It’s fun because it’s also about chemistry: you can only play this kind of football, if everyone can buy it. If there’s not even one person, in that moment, you don’t have a promise, don’t get into people’s faces, you’ll fail.”

Why does a player need to incorporate an idea, why does Dembélé do something he has never done before? Because of everything, because of him like it. Always the last to arrive now always the first, so sharp, so fast, so alive that other football players were till he left.