Ousmane Dembele is one of the most expensive football players of all time.
The Star of Paris Saint-Germain has won four league titles, abolished domestic cups in three countries and played in a World Cup final.
Yet the French attacker has never made much impression on English football.
But that could change if Dembele goes into a Champions League collision with Liverpool in the form of his life.
The 27-year-old has even surpassed Kop hero Mo Salah in the last three months, because he and PSG are growing in confidence that they can finally end their long wait for European glory.
Dembele scored another goal when PSG warmed up for the collision of Liverpool in the French capital on Wednesday with a 4-1 demolition of Lille on Saturday.
And he steps out of the shadow of colleague France Vooruit Kylian Mbappe, who left Paris for Real Madrid in the summer.
When Dembele came to Barcelona in 2017 from Borussia Dortmund, the deal – a maximum of £ 138 million – was the second largest in football history, behind only the £ 200 million that PSG had just spent to Neymar.
Despite winning three LaLiga titles in six seasons with Barca, Dembele had difficulty supplementing the expectations in Camp Nou, partly due to injuries and the club's financial crisis.
It is only now, after his return to France in 2023 to replace Neymar again – this time at PSG – that he seems to fulfill the potential that he showed as an early mature teenager.
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Masour Ousmane Dembele was 13 when he was seen by Stade Rennais and his senior debut for them in November 2015 when he was 18 years old.
Mikael Silvestre – the former Manchester United, Arsenal and France Defender – was an adviser to the club's president.
And after Dembele had scored a hat trick against Nantes in March 2016, Silvestre compared him with “a young Cristiano Ronaldo”, after seeing the Portugal Maestro coming up in Old Trafford.
Barcelona and a large number of Premier League clubs, including Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea, Dembele followed.
But it was Dortmund who broke him in the summer of 2016 in a deal with a value of around £ 30 million.
Dembele rewarded the faith of Dortmund, on and next to the field.
In a great campaign he was the Bundesliga-smokie of the year and scored crucial goals in the semi-final and final of the German cup when the club claimed their first trophy for five years.
Dembele earned his first senior caps for France and claimed a first international goal in a 3-2 friendly victory over England.
Barcelona had seen enough to follow their earlier interest and to sign the 20-year-old in that deal with a value of a maximum of £ 138 million that they would spend on Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho later in the season.
That kind of edition would come back to chase both club and player.
And Dembele, handed the No 11 shirt that has just been left by Neymar, had a sticky start.
He picked up a hamstring injury early in the season that kept him outside for more than three months.
And that would be the story of his six seasons in Catalonia.
There was at least one serious hamstring complaint for each of his three Lalala titles and in general he missed 784 days with 14 different injuries
Barca boss Xavi once claimed that Dembele could be “the best player in the world”.
But that sounded like Wishful Thinking.
Then the club was forced to have Lionel Messi leave in 2021 because of their growing financial problems. Dembele renewed his contract in 2022, but on conditions that are reportedly reduced his salary by 40 percent.
And although he played his role in the title profit of 2022-3, Barcelona eventually sold the attacker to PSG for £ 43.5 million.
It was Deja Vu all over again for Dembele. Days after he became a member on the side of Paris, he inherited Neymar's No 10 shirt when the Brazilian joined the talent Exodus at Saudi Arabia.
Dembele scored in the French Cup final victory over Lyon who made a domestic double -sealed and made important contributions to PSG's Run in the semi -final of the Champions League.
But his six goals in 42 performances were overshadowed, on and next to the field, by club and international teammate Mbappe.
France Captain Mbappe scored 44 goals in 48 games, but even that performance was overshadowed by the constant speculation about his future.
That ended with confirmation that he would join Real Madrid to a free transfer.
So at the start of this season, Dembele again faced the challenge of replacing a recognized superstar.
And this time he delivers, thanks in part to a little hard love from Paris Saint-Germain boss Luis Enrique.
Dembele was dropped at the beginning of October for the Champions League trip to Arsenal because in the words of Enrique he had not respected or met the obligations and requirements of the team “.
It did not immediately look like a Masterstroke of Man-Management by the former boss of Barcelona and Spain.
Dembele struggled for both goals and assists before he was sent away in the 1-0 defeat in Bayern Munich, eliminating PSG from the Champions League before the knockout phase.
But since the beginning of December, nobody in Europe's Big Five Leagues – not even Egyptian king Salah – has scored more goals than Dembele.
His hunger of 18 in 13 performances includes back-to-back hattricks, in the 4-1 win over Stuttgart who earned progress in the Champions League and the 5-2 Ligue 1 win in Brest.
Enrique said: 'You should ask him what he ate before Christmas!
“The best I did was not let Ousmane play in London [at Arsenal].
“Everyone criticized me that day. It was by far the best decision I made this year, but Dembele did the rest of the work.”
Two more Dembele goals against Brest again in the first stage of the play-off PSG of the Champions League on the way to Wednesday's collision with Liverpool and Salah.
And the club where Messi, Neymar and Mbappe did not all have delivered the required European title has new hope with their new hero.
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