Seven years ago, Barcelona signed Ousmane Dembélé, with a checkbook, as a replacement for a Neymar for whom PSG paid 222 million euros. At that time, with an operation that could reach 135 million if all the variables were met, the Frenchman became the most expensive signing in the club's history.. At least, until, just a few months later, he was surpassed by the Brazilian Philippe Coutinho, who would later leave the Camp Nou to go to Aston Villa at a bargain price.

Now, the Frenchman will also pack his bags to go to the club chaired by the Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaïfi after also establishing himself as one of the most ruinous incorporations in the entire history of the Barcelona entity. And not only because of the 50 million euro transfer fee, of which he will pocket half if the team led by Joan Laporta fails to avoid it.. Above all, because of a baggage that does not justify, at all, neither the investment nor the expectations that were placed on his shoulders.

The way in which his departure from Barça has been developed has not gone down well with Xavi, his great supporter and architect of the fact that the club ended up reinstating him in July 2022, once his contract had already expired.. “I wish him all the luck in the world, but I'm a little disappointed with Dembélé. He told us that he was leaving and there has been no way to convince him,” the Barca coach said on Wednesday after the 0-1 win against Milan, with a goal from Ansu Fati, who after scoring hugged the Frenchman as a farewell. The winger, as planned, did not play the game.

Dembélé's decision contrasts, and a lot, with the pulse that the coach himself launched at the club in January of last year. So, the dome decided to leave the footballer in the stands, while the Terrassa coach insisted on the need to have the player on the pitch. In the end, of course, he got away with it. With the numbers in hand, the cost of Dembélé has been exorbitant. The investment to achieve his transfer, without counting his file, rose to around 135 million euros, given that many of the variables included were not excessively complicated to comply with.

discreet statistics

The statistics do not lie and his performances throughout his time as a Barcelona fan are far from justifying figures of authentic crack. Throughout his six seasons in the ranks of the Barça club, he has only played 185 official matches, in which he has scored 40 goals. Or, put another way, each goal by Dembélé, if we take into account only the amount paid for the transfer, has cost Barça almost 3.3 million euros.

Its availability, moreover, has not been up to par either. In the last six years, muscle injuries have been a drag. Before his arrival in Barcelona, he had hardly had any physical problems.. From the summer of 2017 until the end of last season, on the other hand, the Frenchman missed 116 games due to multiple ailments, including two muscle tears.. His season with fewer injuries was 2020-21, with six games in the dry dock. The worst was 2019-20, in which he lost 37 games.

His departure from the club will close with the payment of 50 million euros by PSG. In principle, both the entity chaired by Joan Laporta and the player himself should distribute them equally. At the club, however, they understand that Dembélé's way of acting when managing times to force his departure has not corresponded to the minimum required diligence and they want the amount that is pocketed to be finally somewhat less. A circumstance that, in fact, would be one of the reasons that would be lengthening in time an operation that, by all accounts, would already be more than closed. This Friday is the deadline to announce his departure to PSG.

Luis Enrique learns to win with the French team thanks to the success of Neymar. The Brazilian, who returned to play this Thursday after being out for half a year, scored two goals in the 3-0 victory against Jeonbuk Motors of Korea. The other goal was scored by Asensio.

The Brazil international played his first game after the operation he underwent in March to repair an ankle injury. Present on PSG's Asian tour, the Brazilian forward had not yet played a single minute in the three friendlies that the Parisian team played in Japan.

Korean fans were able to enjoy the PSG star for 90 minutes, further embellished with a brace (minutes 40 and 83) and an assist to Spaniard Marco Asensio, who scored in the 88th minute.

The public was also able to enjoy the South Korean Lee Kang-In, signed in July but later injured in a thigh during the first friendly of the pre-season, who on this occasion played the last twenty minutes of the game.

This is the first victory for Luis Enrique's team in his tour of Asia, in which he has not had Kylian Mbappé. In the previous commitments they drew 0-0 with Nassr, lost 2-3 with Cerezo Osaka and 1-2 with Inter.

It is a label that has followed him almost throughout his career, but that has been repeated especially in his last stretch as a Real Madrid player. “Am I fat?” asked Isco Alarcón (Benalmádena, 1992) on his social networks in 2018 while showing himself shirtless with marked abs. “I also hear the noise that I am lazy,” he recently said in an interview in Marca about the scrutiny he is subjected to in the same social media.

Rodrigo Carretero, co-founder of Crys Dyaz & Co and one of the Malaga soccer player's personal trainers, also recalls the criticism the player received. Isco started working with them two and a half years ago. “When we caught him, he was in Madrid without playing, compared to his teammates, they told him he was fat,” explains Carretero. The man from Malaga started with them with a body fat index of 10% (elite athletes are between 6% and 12%) and with supplementation and training they managed to lower it to 8%, in a short time.

Critics aside, Isco is back. The man from Malaga has signed for Betis after spending six months without a team after terminating his contract with Sevilla. He does it after a break in which he has taken the opportunity to get “physically like never before”, according to Rodrigo Carretero.

Isco has been carrying out, at his home in Madrid and at the gym, double daily sessions from Monday to Friday and “homework” for the weekend. “He works harder than in his entire life,” explains Carretero. Something that can be verified by watching the videos of their sessions on the player's social networks. “He has come to do squats with 150 kilos,” says the coordinator of his training sessions along with another coach, Dani Jiménez, who appears in many of the audiovisual pieces published by the man from Malaga.

But these six months without a team, like any footballer, have made him lose speed and something of a technical-tactical level.. “The dynamics of the team is important, but Isco has a magic wand, with a touch and a quality that is not seen. He is well above any First Division player and that keeps him going,” says the personal trainer.

In addition, there is a relevant part, which is what Pedri wore this summer: the importance of the upper body of the Cupero, which Isco has also worked hard with the team coordinated by Carretero. “Obviously, the lower body is the most important because it is the one that plays the most,” he points out. However, the coach equates footballers with sprinters and believes that to make them more complete they need to have a strong core and arms like them.. “In addition, the more muscle mass, the less fat percentage,” he adds.

Another fundamental part that the man from Malaga has worked on has been the mental part. Even if he turned to a specialist, he also relied on his coaches to be able to unload everything that tormented him.. “The mental part is very important, it is linked to the physical. If you look good, you will feel stronger, without pain”, adds Rodrigo and reviews the “great heart of the man from Malaga”.

Precisely, the footballer himself has been the one most responsible for being prepared for his return with Betis. A return that he chose himself and in which the factor Manuel Pellegrini, the coach who gave him birth as a footballer, was decisive when choosing the Verdiblanco club. “He is mentally very tough, he is used to putting up with pressure,” reveals Carretero. Isco will have to endure a lot.

After the failure in Seville and the frustrated signing by Unión Berlin, Betis could be the last trick to relaunch the career of the man from Malaga. A player who shone in Madrid, who shone in Spain and who elevated Málaga, but his light soon lost intensity. Although he, more than anyone, wants to turn it back on.

“The most important part of his return is the motivation that he has given him,” says Rodrigo and adds that “he sees him looking forward to it” and that this desire “was the key to keeping him in shape outside of a team”. The work of the man from Malaga and his assistants have already put him in the spotlight again.

It arrives and arrives, but does not mark. Generates and generates, but does not finish off. It could be the lack of a 9, it could be bad luck (seven suits in the last two games) and it could also be hits from the rivals. The fact is that Real Madrid says goodbye to their American tour with their second defeat in a row, this time 1-3 against Juventus in Turin and, as against Barcelona. with the feeling that Carlo Ancelotti's team deserved more.

The truth is that there is a Madrid with Vinicius and another without the Brazilian. The truth is that Joselu had three clear chances and missed all three and it is also true that Bellingham needs to be noticed more often. He has a huge class, but sometimes he disconnects from the games and, being engaged, that is like removing fuel from the bonfire.

Fourth game of the American tour, Ancelotti's fourth diamond. This system that the Italian coach has devised to incorporate the English into the Madrid eleven is beginning to show some weaknesses, especially when it comes to defending.

In practically every game, the Italian coach stressed the need to balance the defense-attack balance. And it is not the same to carry out that balance with Kroos, than with Tchouameni. You don't ask a goldsmith to prop up a cathedral vault, you ask him to make stained glass for you. Well that.

Kroos, and also Modric, like diesel cars that they are, were slow to wake up and, when Courtois had not finished buttoning his mitt, Keane, after a great play by Juventus, had already scored the first. Second 50 of the game.

Madrid tried to respond, but half the team except Camavinga and Vinicius were living up to the name of the stadium and seemed to be enjoying a beautiful brunch on the green of Camping World Stadium in Orlando more than playing a football match. The two Madrid midfielders lacked the tablecloth and champagne to toast Juve's second goal. Both were very out of the photo in Weah's goal.

Then, with the second blow in just 20 minutes, and on the back of Vinicius, Madrid went back to doing what they know. Dominate from the ball and harass the open grave. That awakening was caused by the same privileged observer of the two Italian goals. Kroos picked up a loose ball near Fran García's position and, at the first touch, invented a beautiful pass with just the right parable and force to launch Vinicius on the run. The Brazilian, as if he had been scoring goals all his life, defined without ruffling his hair.

Ancelotti said that Madrid's new number 7 “likes to play inside” because “in that position he can score more goals than before”. Nothing is further from reality. The goal came from where the Italian coach says he performs as “the best in the world” and the truth is that each penetration from that side was a real torment for the Italian defense, something similar to what happened in the game against him barca. Vinicius will be able to learn to play inside as he did with the definition, but that day has not yet arrived.

The first half ended with a white siege that if they had had a little more finesse in the Real Madrid boots, especially those of Lucas Vázquez, they could have found the equalizer before the break.

The second, on the other hand, was less exciting.. With much less to tell and, for the Real Madrid fan, a kind of cesspool when Vinicius retires at minute 75. The changes took the bite out of the team and there were barely any chances until the final minutes arrived.

ultimate madness

At 89', the referee decided to take a resounding penalty on Rodrygo from the area and this, like all previous fouls, crashed into the wall. It is worth remembering the personality and optimism of Joselu who, before being traded, took a direct free kick on the edge of the area from the entire Madrid audience led by Kroos. Winning is not lacking for the youth squad.

Returning to this final stretch, with a Madrid overturned, one of the great problems of this new Madrid became evident, the forcefulness in the areas. Shortly after Juventus got closer, he managed to get the ball into the Madrid net. Vlahovic was the one who closed the account for the Italians and the one who slipped that, even without being in shape, a nine is a nine.