“When Ousmane Dembélé arrived, Barça thought I was his father”.

Ousmane Dembélé, the French international, clearly gave Barcelona’s executives a hard time during his time with the Blaugrana.

The former Stade Rennais player joined Barcelona in 2017 and spent 6 years in Catalonia before departing in 2023 to join PSG.

Upon his arrival at Barça, Ousmane Dembélé was not very professional, frequently arriving late to training sessions.

He was even known to show up in the afternoon when sessions were scheduled for the morning.

Since he didn’t understand Spanish at the time, the club relied on his former national team teammate, Samuel Umtiti, to speak to him and bring him back to reason.

“When Ousmane arrived, Barcelona took me for his father. When he was late, they would come to me, but it was funny. He didn’t realize. There was a schedule for the morning and he would come in the afternoon. Plus, he would come annoyed, nobody understood,” recounted the former Olympique Lyonnais defender.

Explaining his unpredictable nature, Samuel Umtiti recalled that even his teammates found out about his marriage through the press.

“During a winter break, I received a video of Ousmane getting married. But since when did Ousmane have a wife? I couldn’t believe it, and he confirmed it to me. He hadn’t told me. It was like he was going to the bakery, nobody at the club knew,” explained Umtiti.