Xavi: Dembele is 'at Neymar's level'
FT Desk
- 8 Sept 2022 08:33 BST
- 3 min read
Ousmane Dembele was out of contract at Barcelona seven months ago. Now he's earning positive comparisons to Neymar!
Dembele has been an intermittent headache at Barca since making his €145 million move from Borussia Dortmund in 2017.
Still just 20 at the time, the French winger would play video games deep into the night and turn up late for training.
Five years exactly since Ousmane Dembele signed for Barcelona.
He was capable of so much 🤩pic.twitter.com/5uUSG9Cy8B— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) August 25, 2022
Last season, Dembele was out of contract. Barca offered him reduced terms, and the wide man refused, expecting interest from Chelsea and beyond, but it never materialised. It might have suited both parties if they parted.
But Xavi did begin to get a tune out of Dembele last season, and this term he has had five goal contributions from five games so far.
Dembele delivering
Dembele assisted two of Barca's five goals as they thrashed Viktoria Plzen 5-1 in their Champions League Group C opener on Wednesday, and Xavi was effusive about him after the game.
"He's happy, enjoying himself, content, he is important for me, for the group," he said. "He makes the difference, assists, scores, he is a knife in the opponent's side and he's in good form.
"I don't want to shower him with praise but the capacity he has in one-on-ones is at the level of the best Neymar. Now he has to be bolder, shoot at goal more and score."
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Neymar scored 105 goals and added 76 assists in 186 games in all competitions for Barcelona - winning eight major honours along the way - before making a world record €222m move to PSG in the summer of 2017 - weeks before Dembele's arrival.
Whether Barca can scale similar heights this season remains to be seen, but they have certainly thrown money at the project.
Only Chelsea and Nottingham Forest spent more than Barca's €160 million on players this summer, with Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde leading the arrivals at Camp Nou.
