Much of the spotlight has been on Karamoko Dembele this season, after the 13-year-old wonderkid played his first game with Celtic’s Under-20s side. The youngster’s achievements are phenomenal, yet he isn’t the only Dembele achieving big things with the Scottish club.
20-year-old goalscorer Moussa Dembele joined the Scottish champions from Fulham during the summer, having spent three years at the club after failing to make the cut with French giants Paris Saint-Germain. Yet, after just 24 matches with Celtic, the growing prospect finds himself on the receiving end of plenty of interest from some of the world’s biggest clubs.
“Dembele is an exciting player potentially for France, he has already shown what he is capable of. He is a very big signing for Celtic,” Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane stated soon after Dembele’s move to Scotland. “I know that Bayern, Monaco and Juventus were all looking at him.”
Dembele could undoubtedly be a part of one of those sides already if he wished, yet it is his reluctance to join a top European side that had allowed him to develop into the exciting player that he is. The Frenchman was already training with the PSG first-team when he opted to join Fulham, seeing the move as a chance to play regular football.
Less than six months into his stint with the Championship club, Dembele was scouted by Manchester United, as well as a Liverpool side then headed by Brendan Rodgers. Three years later, he was turning down offers from Everton and Feyenoord to link up with Rodgers, who is now the manager of Celtic.
Some of the club’s fans felt that he wasn’t up to scratch during the first few weeks of his Celtic career - he failed to score in the league until late August and some felt that prolific scorer Leigh Griffiths was a better option to lead the line. Yet, 16 goals in 24 games for the 20-year-old, and he has now secured his place in the first-team.
Unsurprisingly, interest in Dembele has reared its head again, with Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea all said to be interested. Despite playing it down, Zidane is said to have contacted the club over a potential deal too. Yet, the 20-year-old will be in no rush to make the jump, having found out already that slow progress is the best way to reach the top.
Celtic is undoubtedly the best place for the prolific goalscorer at this stage in his career. Despite spending some years at PSG, he had yet to experience the limelight of professional football. Celtic struggle to match some of the bigger clubs in Europe, yet Celtic currently stand as the biggest club in Scotland and their nine million fan following and 61,000-capacity Celtic Park stadium is like nothing that he has experienced before. Playing for such a major club offers him a taste of life at the top without the pressure of playing for a club like Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, who are expected to win trophy after trophy domestically and in Europe.
His big move will undoubtedly come, and when it does it is likely to smash the Scottish transfer record set at 12.5 million by Victor Wanyama. Yet, there is no rush for the youngster, who is proving that the old saying, ‘slow and steady wins the race’, still rings true.