Ousmane Dembele faces Saturday’s Champions League final as a potential Ballon d’Or contender. Robert Fernandez, the sporting director who signed him for Barcelona, admitted in Sport that there was a lack of “patience” with the player in every respect and praised his development.
It is always easy to speak with hindsight, but when it comes from someone who lived the story from within and offers self-criticism, it takes on a different meaning.
Robert Fernandez was the sporting director who brought Ousmane Dembele to Barcelona. In the hours before the Champions League final between PSG and Inter Milan, the former executive reflected on the “little patience” he felt was shown towards the winger at Camp Nou.
This goal-scoring Dembele bears little resemblance to the player who passed through Barcelona, although he had his moments, especially towards the end under Xavi.
Yet he endured many hardships and left behind sobering statistics regarding the limited return on his transfer — at least for a time. Now, he is even a candidate to win the Ballon d’Or if he lifts the trophy in Munich.
“If PSG win the Champions League, it’s possible Ousmane could get the award. But I see him on par with Lamine Yamal,” Robert Fernandez said about the player’s candidacy.
He also defended himself against criticism over the signing at Barcelona: “We didn’t have the necessary patience with him. Nobody did. Not you, the press, nor us. Honestly, I think we were too harsh on this player.”
“Unfortunately, I have to say it like this, he didn’t understand many things. He came very young, and mind you, I wanted him even two years earlier. He had extraordinary qualities,” recalled the Betxí native, who believes Dembele was judged too harshly without knowing the truth about his personal life.
“What went wrong? There was no patience, and above all, he suffered two injuries. It’s a contradiction because I was told personally that he wasn’t very professional, but that wasn’t true. He was an excellent professional. He didn’t drink, yet they said he did. They said he led a bad lifestyle, and that was a lie. It hurt him a lot; I believe it unbalanced him,” he defended.
Robert Fernandez also praised the French winger’s resilience to overcome that situation and finish on good terms — on the pitch — with the Catalans: “Ousmane is a man with a lot of personality because after everything that happened, he managed to succeed at Barcelona. His ending was good, with Xavi’s support.”
In his second season under Luis Enrique, Ousmane Dembele has already registered 12 assists and 33 goals — more than double his best previous season tally (14 in 2018/19).
From a somewhat ambiguous position, he will be one of the weapons PSG deploy, alongside Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue, in their quest to win the club’s first-ever Champions League title.