Ex-FC Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele confessed that he still keeps in touch with some of his former teammates and wouldn’t say that he is a role model when talking to UEFA this week.
Dembele joined Paris Saint-Germain last summer when the Qatar-backed giants activated his release clause.
Eight months later, he will face his club from 2017 to 2023 in the Champions League quarterfinals and said that it will be “wonderful” to be back playing in Barcelona and Spain to the competition’s organizers while predicting a “great game of football” across two legs.
The first of those takes place in the Parc des Princes on Wednesday, which “everyone wants tickets” for according to Dembele.
He also revealed he’s talked to a couple of former Blaugrana colleagues about the fixture, though with one Barca star contact is constant.
“I saw Jules Kounde in the national team with France and there were some jokes, as always. But it’s going to be a great game. I also got in touch with Gavi, even though he’s injured. We often talk to each other before games,” Ousmane said.
Though he had more than his fair share of ups and downs in Catalonia, Dembele is grateful for his time at Camp Nou.
“I would say I learned a lot, on and off the field, thanks to my coaches, but also to the great friends I made there. I don’t know everybody, but I know a lot of people who are still there. I learned a lot,” he reiterated.
He further admitted that he wouldn’t exactly call himself a role model, but insisted he’s “always tried to play at the highest level”.
With Kylian Mbappe, ‘the Mosquito’ now looks to inflict pain on Xavi Hernandez and his men who are through to the UCL quarterfinals for the first time since an 8-2 drubbing against Bayern Munich in 2020 which Dembele played in.