Usman Dembele is a French professional footballer who plays as a winger in the Spanish club Barcelona and the national team of France. Previously played in the “Rennes” and “Borussia Dortmund”. In the 2016/17 season. became the owner of the German Cup in the Dortmund Borussia - in the final, the Frenchman became the author of the goal and the best player in the match. It was bought by the Catalan Barcelona for 105 million euros, becoming at the time the second most expensive football player in the history of football. He is the world champion in 2018 in the "tri-color".
Biography
Usman Dembele was born on May 15, 1997 in Vernon, France. His mother is Frenchwoman of Moorish-Senegalese descent, and his father is from Mali. At the age of seven he was enrolled in the football academy "Madlyn Evreux", in which he was until 2010. Then the player moved to Rennes, where he spent five seasons at the youth level and 2 seasons in League-1. For the adult squad, the Red-Blacks played 29 matches and scored 12 goals.
On September 6, 2015, Usman made his debut in the first team in League 1 against the Angers club, replacing Camila Grosicki in the 85th minute. November 22 of the same year, he scored his first goal for the club in a match with Bordeaux.
In total, as part of the “red-blacks" he played 29 matches and scored 12 goals.
Career at Borussia Dortmund
On May 12, 2016, French football player Usman Dembele signed a five-year contract with the German club Borussia Dortmund. In August of the same year, he held his first match for the “Bumblebees” against the Munich “Bavaria” for the German Super Cup. During the match, Borussia looked fresher and better - the team scored two unanswered goals and soon the players raised a trophy over themselves. So Dembele won his first title at the club level.
September 20, 2016 scored a debut goal against Wolfsburg in the German Bundesliga, the “yellow-blacks” then scored a victory with a crushing score of 5-1.
On September 22, the French winger scored in the UEFA Champions League, scoring the first goal of the tournament in the legions of Warsaw. Then the fight was incredibly productive - 8: 4 in favor of the team from Dortmund.
For two seasons, the Hornets statistics of Usman Dembele have the following indicators: 10 goals in 50 matches and a victory in the German Cup 2016/17.
Going to Barcelona
On August 25, 2017, Dembele moved to the Catalan Barcelona, signing a five-year contract. Dortmund Borussia received a record sum for the transfer of a young French winger - 105 million euros with a possible bonus of 40 million euros. As a result of the sale, the French Rennes received 20 million euros in its account. The transfer transaction was the second largest in the world after Neymar, who transferred to Paris Saint-Germain for 225 million euros. Currently, the second place is occupied by the Frenchman Killian Mbappe from PSG, whose value was estimated at 180 million euros.
As part of the “blue garnet”, Usman made his debut on September 9, 2017, substituting in the 68th minute in the match against Espanyol at Camp Nou (5-0 victory). In this match, the Frenchman scored an assist for Luis Suarez.
I missed half the season due to injury
In the next match with Getafe, Dembele received a serious injury - damage to the tendon of the left thigh. The player is out of action for four whole months. The head coach of the “Catalans” Ernesto Valverde criticized the 20-year-old winger for his inexperience, as a result of which he was injured. Usman tried to catch the outgoing ball behind the goal line, and when he did it, he played with the heel. According to Valverde, an experienced football player would never play in this way in such a situation, because he knows what muscle injuries are. The injury of a football player deprived his last club of receiving a transfer bonus of 10 million euros. It is noteworthy that in 2014, the then newcomer - Brazilian Neymar, received exactly the same injury in the match against Getafe.
On January 2, Usman Dembele recovered and was ready for the 19th round of La Liga. And so it happened - the player entered the match with Real Sociedad, but again suffered damage, which knocked him out for another month.
Back in service
The French winger was able to score his first goal for Barca only on April 17 in a match with Celta. Three weeks later, the footballer recorded in his statistics a double in a match with Villarreal. According to the results of the debut season in the Catalan club, he became the champion of Spain and the owner of the Super Bowl of Spain, in which he managed to score the goal of Seville.
September 18, 2018 scored his first goal in the UEFA Champions League, helping Barcelona beat PSV Eindhoven (4-0).