Freed from the wing, Ousmane Dembele takes flight in Paris Premium

Ousmane Dembele's rise as a prolific No. 9 at PSG showcases his ambipedal brilliance and scoring prowess in 2025.

When he stepped up to take his penalty during the shootout at Anfield, Ousmane Dembele offered a glimpse of the multidimensional threat he carries at all times — even in the most adverse conditions. The Champions League round-of-16 tie against Liverpool had entered its climax, the anxiety was at breaking point, but it appeared to make no difference to Dembele.

The Paris Saint-Germain attacker shaped as if he were about to kick his penalty left-footed, then shuffled around to smash it in right-footed. Even if Alisson — near impenetrable over two legs — hadn’t bought Dembele’s bluff, he would have had to invest some energy in considering it. For, the Frenchman is a rare ambipedal footballer, so strong with both feet that an old video of a dumbfounded journalist asking Dembele which foot he preferred remains a popular meme.

It was Dembele’s astonishing skill and trickery with both feet that made him Barcelona’s most expensive signing for an eye-watering €105 million (plus 40 million in add-ons) in 2017. His time as a teenager at Rennes and Borussia Dortmund had many in the football world — scouts, data analysts, sporting directors, coaches and players — convinced that he was on track to becoming one of the game’s best. The move to Barcelona as a 20-year-old, to replace Neymar and play alongside Lionel Messi, seemed the defining step in his inevitable ascension to greatness.

But the hero arc did not quite play out in the manner many expected it to. Dembele’s time at Camp Nou was a blend of injury setbacks, off-field issues and wasteful finishing. There were still jaw-dropping moments, trophy success, even occasional signs that he may yet realise his phenomenal potential. But a return of 40 goals and 41 assists from 185 matches over six seasons wasn’t the elite attacking output big European clubs pay a premium for. 

When he moved to Paris in 2023, it appeared as though Dembele would live out the rest of his footballer life as a very good player, just not quite a Ballon D’Or contender. But a story that has defied expectations defied that expectation, too. For, it is at PSG this year that Dembele appears to have assumed his final form as the unstoppable force many foresaw a decade ago.

After his dazzling performance over two legs against Liverpool, in which the Reds defence just couldn’t live with his menacing movement, mazy dribbling and creative passing, Dembele scored in PSG’s 3-1 win over Marseille at the Parc des Princes in a meeting of the top two in Ligue 1 before the international break. The goal took the 27-year-old’s tally to 30 for PSG in all competitions this season. This includes a run of 25 goals since mid-December and 22 in 2025, more than any other player in Europe’s top-five leagues.

The key to Dembele’s emergence as a prolific scorer within a free-flowing system on offence is his move from the wing to the middle. In central areas as a roaming No. 9, his two-footedness makes him a nightmare to defend against. He was one of the world’s best small-space dribblers on the wing, but defenders could, in theory if not always in practice, use the touchline to restrict his progress. That simply isn’t an option in the centre, where he can beat you off either foot on either side. Once he does that, he is much closer to goal than he would have been starting wide.