Four Facts to Know About UEFA Champions League Winner Ousmane Dembélé
This year’s frontrunner for the Ballon d’Or award has strong familial roots in West Africa.
Ousmane Dembele of Paris Saint-Germain bites his Winners Medal after his team's victory to secure Paris Saint-Germain's first ever UEFA Champions League title in the club's history.
Ousmane Dembélé is undoubtedly one of the best soccer players in the world right now. That consideration is a leap from just a year ago, when the French forward finished his first season at France’s premier football club, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), with the most assists in France’s top-flight league, Ligue 1, and was named to the league’s team of the season. He also received more yellow cards than he scored goals.
Right now, he’s a frontrunner for the Ballon d’Or, the most coveted award for footballers playing in Europe, after a season where he logged 33 goals and 12 assists in 49 matches across all competitions, playing a talismanic role en route to sweeping all four major trophies PSG competed in. Last weekend, PSG ended its decades-long wait for its first UEFA Champions League trophy, absolutely whacking Italy’s Inter Milan in the final match.
Dembélé was impactful on Saturday, May 31, setting up two of PSG’s five unanswered goals. As PSG’s Champions League campaign gathered momentum during the latter stages of the group phase and the knockout stage, he was undoubtedly the club’s best player, contributing eight goals and six assists, which earned him Champions League Player of the Season honors. A few weeks before, he was named Ligue 1 Player of the Year, a full circle moment from nine years ago when he was awarded the French league’s Young Player of the Year after his first season as a professional footballer.
The 28-year-old’s phenomenal season fulfilled a potential that was glaring years ago, finally overcoming years of injury concerns and poor output. In celebration of Dembélé’s success, here are four important facts for those previously unfamiliar.
West African origin
Although born and raised in France, Dembélé’s roots are firmly planted in West Africa. His father, Ousmane Dembélé Sr., was born and raised in Mali, while his mother, Fatimata, is of Mauritanian and Senegalese descent. Both parents met in France as migrants. As a young adolescent, Fatimata played an active role in Dembélé’s early stage development as a footballer, moving to Rennes with him, where he was guided by his first agent and former Mali international, Badou Sambangué. While both parents are mainly in the background, only appearing on momentous occasions, it is well known that they, Fatimata especially, are highly influential in their son’s career trajectory.
A practicing Muslim
After winning the 2018 FIFA World Cup with the French national team, it was widely reported that Dembélé donated his earnings from the tournament to the construction of a new mosque in his mother’s hometown in southern Mauritania. Dembélé has always been proud of his Islamic faith; he can be seen saying short prayers before matches, and he’s known to play matches while fasting during the Holy Month of Ramadan.
The nine-figure transfer fee
Following a stellar first season at German club side Borussia Dortmund, where he was instrumental to the German League Cup (DFB Pokal) win, Dembélé moved to Spanish giants Barcelona for a whopping transfer fee of over £135 million ($182 million), making him the second most expensive player in the world at the time.
Dembélé’s signing as the replacement for Brazilian maestro Neymar, who departed Barcelona that same summer for £222 million ($300 million), placed huge expectations on the then 20-year-old’s shoulders. Despite winning three Spanish league titles and several more domestic trophies in six years, Dembélé was never truly transcendental with the Blaugrana. His highest goal tally for a season was 14 goals in 42 appearances during the 2018/19 season, while his league-leading 13 assists in 2021/22 were paired with just two goals in 32 matches.
The two-footed maverick
Dembélé’s phenomenal second season with PSG clicked into place towards the end of last year, epitomized by a run of 18 goals in 10 matches between mid-December 2024 and early February 2025. It coincided with a tactical adjustment that allowed the forward to play more central and roam around opposition territory in a more fluid setup. This sharpened his rare ability to be effective in playing with either his right foot or left foot.
Playing on either side of the forward positions, Dembélé is always a threat when cutting in. However, the move to playing as an unorthodox striker has given him more space to operate, both as a goalscorer and a creator of goals. In his hat-trick performance against Stuttgart, all three of his goals were scored with his right foot, including a powerful strike and a beautiful curler. His goal against Arsenal in the first leg of the Champions League semifinal was an instinctive and precise left-footed shot.
