It is 4 March 2017. Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park is packed to the rafters for an epic clash between the hosts Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen, but all eyes are on one player: 19-year-old Ousmane Dembele. That day, Dortmund win 6-2, thanks in no small part to a brace from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but it is the young French winger who steals the show, dazzling with every touch, his pace and flair tormenting the opposition and earning him man-of-the-match honours.
“I think the word ‘talented’ was invented to describe players like Dembele,” said his coach Thomas Tuchel in an interview with UEFA. “He has extraordinary talent. He dribbles like no one else, is comfortable with both feet, is unpredictable and he sees the right passes.”
With all of France raving about him since his breakout with Rennes the previous season, the matter seemed cut and dried: Dembele was the undisputed future of French football
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But here is the twist in the tale. While the Normandy-born player was taking flight in Germany, another true phenom burst onto the scene, creating a media storm: enter Kylian Mbappe. Everyone in French and, in fact European, football was talking about him.
Though regarded as a rising star at Monaco, he was still seen by some as less technically refined than Dembele. That would soon change. On the weekend that saw the Dortmund gem run riot against the Leverkusen defence, 17-year-old Mbappe delivered a stunning brace against Nantes in a 4-0 rout. Days later, he played a decisive role in the second leg of Monaco’s dramatic Champions League Round-of-16 tie against Manchester City, which saw the French side advance on away goals after a 6-6 aggregate thriller. He followed that with a match-winning performance against Bordeaux before delivering a masterclass at Caen – scoring twice and providing an assist in the 3-0 victory – that earned him a standing ovation from both sets of supporters.
March 2017 signalled the true arrival of the current Real Madrid star on the global stage. “From the start, we could tell he was different,” said Monaco team-mate Bernardo Silva at the time. “The way the ball sticks to his feet, for example. The way he plays – it’s something else. And he works hard. I hope that he’ll carry on and help us lift silverware.”
As fate would have it, the pair’s meteoric rise brought them face to face in the Champions League quarter-finals weeks later. That encounter would foreshadow the dynamic between them. Monaco triumphed over a rattled Dortmund side, whose bus had been the target of a bombing attack en route to the stadium for the first leg at Signal Iduna Park. Though Dembele scored in that home leg, Mbappe stole the spotlight, netting half of his team’s goals across both matches in a 6-3 aggregate win for Monaco.
An eventful summer followed, with both players making high-profile moves. Dembele joined Barcelona, and Mbappe signed for Paris Saint-Germain. While Dembele’s transfer marked a leap in his career, Mbappe’s move dominated the headlines. “I was drawn to the club’s ambitions. It’s one of the most ambitious clubs in Europe,” said the Bondy-born speedster shortly after his arrival at the Parisian club.
Over the next six seasons, both stars remained at their respective clubs. At Barça, under coaches Ernesto Valverde, Quique Setien, Ronald Koeman and then Xavi, Dembele honed his craft and amassed an impressive collection of domestic titles. Across the Pyrenees, Mbappe flourished at PSG, emerging as France’s new golden boy thanks to a heavier goal tally and greater media attention than the former Rennes forward.
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During his time with the Catalans, Dembele scored 40 goals and provided 41 assists in 185 matches, despite being somewhat plagued by injuries. Meanwhile, Mbappe – who was more clinical in front of goal and was presented with more opportunities as the main focus of his side’s attacks – found the back of the net 212 times in 262 appearances across this period, while also tallying around 100 assists.
While comparisons of Dembele and Mbappe abound in French and European media, often portraying them as rivals, they have remained close friends, their bond cemented during their early days as part of Les Bleus. They were both part of France squads which won the FIFA World Cup™ in 2018 and reached another final in 2022.
From the moment they joined the French national team, the two players have shared deep mutual respect, often praising each other publicly and playfully teasing one another. “He’s the world’s best young player,” said Mbappe of his friend just days before the start of the 2018 World Cup.
“He’s exaggerating a bit, but it’s nice to hear,” Dembele said. “For me, he’s the world’s best young player. He’s incredibly talented. He scores goals, he dribbles, he’s efficient.”
Five years after their World Cup triumph, the 2023/24 season saw Paris Saint-Germain take a bold gamble by pairing the two French stars after the high-profile exits of Neymar and Lionel Messi. The bosom buddies lit up the pitch under Luis Enrique. Together they powered PSG to a domestic double, winning Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France, and reaching the Champions League semi-finals. The partnership, though electric, was fleeting. Mbappe made his long-anticipated move to Real Madrid, leaving Dembele as PSG’s main man.
At the start of the 2024/25 season, doubts lingered over whether Dembele could fill his friend’s boots. Those doubts were soon dispelled, however, with the 28-year-old enjoying the best season of his career, leading the capital club to a clean sweep of domestic and European titles.
Though often in Mbappe’s shadow, Dembele holds a distinction that has eluded his former team-mate, for now, at least. He is the only one of the two to have been crowned a European champion with his club. The Rennes prodigy has finally fulfilled that glorious destiny, living up to his promise. “I feel proud – it’s really amazing to play in the Champions League, win it for the first time and do so in style,” he told Canal+ after PSG’s final win over FC Internazionale Milano.
As PSG and Real Madrid prepare to face off in the semi-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup™, the spotlight will return to the two forwards’ intertwined tales, among other stories no doubt. Regardless of the team that emerges victorious, it was written in the stars that the two Frenchmen, each in his own way and following his own path, would end up exactly here: on football’s grandest stage, at the pinnacle of the global game.
