Ousmane Dembélé: PSG star currently the best player in the world?

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Flying without Mbappe 

©TM/IMAGO

There isn’t a more in-form player in the world currently than Ousmane Dembélé. The PSG attacker has been scintillating in 2025 and he maintained his extraordinary exploits in the French champions’ 3-0 win over fellow Ligue 1 side Brest in the first leg of their Champions League play-off tie.

Dembele won a first-half penalty before scoring either side of half-time to essentially secure PSG’s passage in the last 16. Brest will be firmly haunted by Dembele as the French international made it five goals in the space of ten days against the Brittany club. Dembele’s goalscoring exploits this year are remarkable and he’s finally delivering on his unquestionable potential under Luis Enrique.

Incredibly, Dembele has already scored 15 goals in 2025 across just eight games – no other player has reached double figures. The 27-year-old’s double against Brest was his second brace of the year and he also scored two hat-tricks – against Brest and Stuggart. And as the graphic below illustrates, Dembele is comfortably enjoying his best scoring season of his career with 23 goals – his previous highest was 14 in the 2018/19 season.

 Since his emergence at Rennes, Dembele’s always possessed massive potential but he never delivered on that during his spell in Barcelona. Injuries and ill-discipline were key factors behind Dembele’s struggles at Barcelona and he was also under immense pressure after the Catalan giants paid €135 million to Borussia Dortmund for his services – still the fourth highest transfer fee in history. But Dembele has flourished under PSG head coach Enrique this season and he’s relished the increased responsibility since Kylian Mbappé’s departure. The former Barcelona boss has deployed Dembele as a central striker in recent weeks and it’s paid dividends with his 23 goals this season a massive increase on last season when he scored just six times.