The 2024-25 season could hardly have gone better for Ousmane Dembele. The Ballon d’Or frontrunner has had his say of the three players who inspired him to play football.
After a mega-money move to Barcelona that did not work out, it would have been fair to predict Dembele would never trouble the best players in the world list but a move to PSG and playing under Luis Enrique has revitalised his career.
The 28-year-old played 51 times for treble winners PSG, providing 47 goal involvements and was a crucial cog to the all-conquering Parisian club.
Such was the level of his performance that many have tipped him to pick up the Ballon d’Or in September and become the first Frenchman since Zinedine Zidane in 1998 to win the golden ball.
But while he waits to discover if he has been chosen, Dembele was recently on international duty when he was asked to name his three favourite players of all time and he came back with some surprising results.
Lionel Messi
The first name he mentioned was not one of the surprising calls as Dembele went for Lionel Messi – arguably the greatest player of all time and a man with more Ballons d’Or than anyone.
While Messi produced his best work when Dembele was growing up, the two did play together when the Camp Nou side forked out €105 million to bring Dembele to the club.
He and Messi played 95 times together, linking up for a combined 15 goals, but even if Dembele struggled during that period, Messi very much did not.
In the four seasons they spent together, Messi scored 165 times as Barcelona won two league titles. Their paths would split in 2021 when Messi left for PSG, and the Argentina star left Paris in the summer when Dembele arrived.
Their next moment together came in this summer’s Club World Cup and after Dembele’s PSG knocked Messi’s Inter Miami out 4-0, the two shared a picture which Dembele posted to his Instagram.
The caption read: “How nice to see you again, Messi, the best player of all time… I hope you continue to make history with Inter Miami as you did in the Club World Cup.”
David Beckham
Considering the era Dembele grew up in, him having David Beckham on his list should come as no real surprise and the reason he does goes back to Dembele’s childhood.
Arguably the most famous footballer of all time, ‘Becks’ was a cultural icon, and Dembele’s age meant he would have been an impressionable youngster when Beckham was arguably the most famous footballer on the planet.
Beckham’s move to Madrid came when Dembele was six and Dembele would have been 15 when the English star moved to PSG.
As to why Beckham made it into Dembele’s top three, that’s because Beckham’s was the first shirt the future PSG star ever owned.
QUIZ:Can you name PSG’s Xl from David Beckham’s final game in 2013?
Steven Gerrard
Dembele is a little unusual in that he seems to support a number of clubs – including Leeds United, bizarrely – but one of his soft spots is for Liverpool.
It makes sense then that club legend Steven Gerrard has found his way onto Dembele’s list.
The midfielder played 710 times for the Anfield side, scoring 191 times and assisting 170, and although the Premier League title alluded him, Gerrard won the Champions League, UEFA League, two UEFA Super Cups, two FA Cups and three League Cups.
The revelation that Gerrard was in Dembele’s top three was great news for Ibrahima Konate, who was sitting in the same room when Dembele said it.
Current Liverpool defender Konate could be heard cheering when the former Anfield great was picked.
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