Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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Winners in 2018, runners-up in 2022 – will 2026 be France’s 12 months to as soon as once more rule the roost on soccer’s greatest stage?
With a brand new 12 months, comes a brand new set of objectives and for the world’s newly topped finest males’s soccer participant, Ousmane Dembélé, one other shot at World Cup glory is excessive on his agenda.
After lifting the trophy in Russia eight years in the past, painful recollections of an agonizing loss to Argentina in Qatar stay. The probability, although, for redemption on US soil this summer time and a tilt at a 3rd world title for Les Bleus is a chance he needs to seize with each palms.
“We know what it takes to go all the way and we’re going to try to do everything to bring the trophy home,” the ahead solely informed NCS Sports after successful the Best Men’s Player Award on the latest Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
“We know we have a mission in the United States. We’ve been talking about this World Cup for a long time now and I think we’ll be ready for the occasion.”
Undertaking that mission can be a bunch of gamers very completely different to those that took to the sector within the Lusail Stadium in December 2022.
Gone are veterans Hugo Lloris, Raphaël Varane, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud.
The class of 2026 underneath France coach Didier Deschamps is a mixture of energetic youth and skilled heads with Dembélé poised to be one of many main figures alongside fellow striker Kylian Mbappé.
“There’ve been a huge number of changes,” he says. “We’ve obtained proficient gamers who’ve tailored very properly to the type and squad.
“The French team will always play a leading role in this kind of tournament, so you’ll have to count on us.”
The 28-year-old acknowledges that the event received’t be simple, with a standout group stage match towards Norway, that includes Premier League stars Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard, on the horizon.
However, the group’s opening match of the event – a June 16 conflict towards Senegal at MetLife Stadium – is what the ahead has circled in his diary.
Born and raised in France to immigrants from Africa, his mom Fatima, with whom he shares an in depth bond, is Mauritanian-Senegalese whereas his father hails from Mali.
“I received a ton of messages after that,” he smiles, recalling December’s World Cup draw.
“People told me to score an own goal (against Senegal). Literally! There are several of us in this team who are Senegalese and French. It’s going to be a very beautiful match.”
It’s not simply at nationwide degree the place the attacker is eyeing additional success.
2025 was a transformative 12 months individually and at membership degree for Dembélé.
He was an instrumental a part of the Paris Saint-Germain group which ran riot in France final season, ending because the league’s high scorer as Les Parisiens received a home double.
With eight objectives and six assists in 15 Champions League matches, Dembélé galvanized the younger PSG squad on its approach to a historic first-ever European Cup with a thumping 5-0 win over Inter Milan, during which he provided objectives for Désiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
The rewards for his exploits? The prestigious Ballon d’Or in September, adopted by the FIFA Best Award in December and the aforementioned Globe Soccer Award earlier than the flip of the 12 months.
It was the success of a private childhood dream and testomony to the story that the highway to the very high is way from simple.
Dembélé burst onto the scene, successful France’s younger participant of the 12 months award in his first season as knowledgeable at Stade Rennais, the next season, he helped Borussia Dortmund win the German Cup. But a big-money transfer to European large Barcelona smothered him in weighty expectations and he was hamstrung with a plethora of accidents.
To many, his trajectory was ruined.
“I remember moments in my career when it was difficult, when I couldn’t give up. It was mostly mental,” he says.
“I had a lot of things to deal with … But there you go, it’s your path, it’s destiny, it’s life. You just have to keep playing.”
His arrival at PSG in 2023, which roughly coincided with the appointment of head coach Luis Enrique, has proved to be the rebirth of his profession.
Dembélé has thrived underneath Enrique’s deal with wanting the collective – not people – to be the star, notably following the departure of famous person Mbappé to Real Madrid in the summertime of 2024.
“Every footballer wants to have a team that is collectively very strong. I take a lot of pleasure in this team,” he says proudly. “Everyone is important in this squad whether you’re young or a bit older.”
The shift in mentality from the star-laden groups of Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar to Enrique’s hardworking group bore outstanding outcomes for the membership with a surprising six trophies in 2025.
Les Parisiens continued the place they left off by lifting their first trophy of the 12 months final week as they defeated arch-rival Olympique de Marseille in dramatic trend on penalties to assert their fourth straight French Super Cup title.
While the group is engaged in a intently fought title race in France with the unexpectedly high-flying Lens, PSG can have its their eyes on changing into the primary group since Los Blancos to win back-to-back Champions Leagues.
With two matchdays remaining within the league section, the defending champions stay on target to qualify mechanically for the spherical of 16, presently sitting third within the standings with 13 factors from six matches.
The Frenchman and his teammates, although, are usually not content material with the successful to cease there.
The message from Dembélé is evident: Paris Saint-Germain isn’t going anyplace any time quickly.
“As the coach repeated to us, it’s by being a team that we can go and get all these trophies and that’s what we did, especially in 2025 and we’re going to try and do the same thing in 2026,” he says.
“The philosophy of Paris Saint-Germain and the group isn’t going to vary.
“We want to be a united team and, above all, a great team.”