Ousmane Dembele's Ligue 1 Season Has Been Insane

Ousmane Dembele was one of the most exciting prospects in world football about a decade ago, after he made his debut for Rennes in November of 2015. In his first season in senior football, he scored 12 goals in 26 games in Ligue 1, which earned him a lot of praise and comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo by sporting director Mikael Silvestre who had been at Manchester United with the Portuguese winger.

He subsequently earned a move to Dortmund, and after an incredible debut campaign in Germany, Barcelona forked out around £100m for him. This sort of money was a little more than what he was actually worth, but he had scored nine and assisted 20 in the Bundesliga. Dortmund knew that Barcelona had just earned a lot of money from selling Neymar and so were able to demand a higher fee than the youngster’s worth.

Ousmane Dembele:

9 goals
20 assists

First season at Dortmund. 19 years old. pic.twitter.com/8IL0sD7KbX

— Alex Chaffer (@AlexChaffer) April 26, 2017

He flopped at Barcelona and was bought by PSG for roughly £50m, half of what the Spanish side had paid for him. His first season in Paris was poor, there is no denying that, but this season has been very different for the Frenchman.

Dembele’s Goals This Season

Strangely, Dembele hasn’t started a lot of games this season. In fact he has played roughly 65% of the total available minutes in the league, yet he has a goal contribution rate of 32%. The season started well, with seven goal involvements in the first six games, including a brace against Stade Brestois. Despite this form, he still didn’t manage to get a full 90 minutes until his seventh league game, which ended up being his second that he didn’t contribute to a goal in.

The dilemma was that Dembele was making such an impact off the bench that starting him sometimes hindered the team. In the next game, against Strasbourg, the Frenchman was left on the bench for the whole 90 minutes, and the team won 4-2. This started a dry spell for Dembele, who only managed a goal and an assist in the next six league games that took him to the middle of December.

Ousmane Dembélé's form in 2025 🥵

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— B/R Football (@brfootball) February 11, 2025

Since then, he has managed 12 goal involvements in eight appearances. He missed one game in the middle of that through illness, although that didn’t hamper his form, as he returned to score against Stade Reims. His league form has even carried over to the Champions League, as he has managed six goals in his last four matches, including a hat trick over Stuttgart.

International Prospects

The French national team is one of the best in the world, so breaking into that side would be difficult, although Dembele has earned 53 caps, demonstrating the faith that the manager has in him. During that time however, he has managed just six goals. The last international games were played in November, before Dembele’s recent run of good form, and he was left out of the squad for those Nations League Fixtures.

Michael Olise is now earning regular call ups in Dembele’s position, and given his form since he moved to Bayern Munich, the PSG winger might have some difficulty fighting his way back in.

Big Fish In A Small Pond

There have been some suggestions that Dembele has only performed as well as he has because of the quality of the French league being much lower than that of La Liga. Dembele’s best attributes are his pace and his dribbling, which is easier to hide behind in a league where the defenders aren’t at the same level.

Dembélé making it look easy! 🇫🇷⚽ pic.twitter.com/pn6T0LJQJt

— Ligue 1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) February 27, 2025

PSG have dominated French football for a long time and while they may have occasional slumps, they are still miles ahead of any other team in that division, which might explain why Dembele is performing so well. The argument against this is that his form has continued into the Champions League as of late, although two of the last four games in that competition were against Ligue 1 opposition in Brest.