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A previous version of this column was originally published on 19 February

Ousmane Dembele has long had a big reputation.

The forward – who was once the second-most expensive player in history when he signed for Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund in 2017 in a deal worth £135 – was described by Barca president Joan Laporta as “better than Kylian Mbappe” in 2021.

A week later, then Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez said he was a player who “when used properly, could be the best player in the world”.

Two months on, having been told by a cash-strapped Barcelona to accept a new contract on reduced terms or leave, Xavi dropped him from the squad.

That story reflects his time at Barcelona, a six-year spell of inconsistency and unfulfilled potential.

In August 2023, the France forward was bought by Paris St-Germain for £43m, having scored 40 goals in 185 games and won three La Liga titles.

Now – with 22 goals in his past 16 games – he is Europe’s most in-form striker, drawing comparison to the likes of Lionel Messi, who scored 13 goals in four games in March 2012, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who hit 11 goals in four games in May 2011.

He is also viewed as PSG’s trump card in their quest for a first Champions League trophy.

Since the start of December, he has scored more goals than any other player in the big five European leagues.

Dembele arrived at Barcelona aged 20 as their most expensive signing, but his time at the club was a mix of injury setbacks and off-field issues.

Despite being largely injury-free at Rennes and Dortmund, he sustained 14 muscle issues at the Nou Camp, spending 784 days sidelined.

Concerns over discipline and professionalism led the club to assign private chefs to him, while late nights because of gaming affected his training punctuality, making him the club’s most-fined player in recent years.

Still, when fit, his explosive pace and dribbling made him a game-changer, as he showed glimpses of the talent Barcelona invested in.

So what changed him?

Those that know him best – and few do – say he changed after marrying his girlfriend Rima at a Muslim wedding in Morocco in December 2021, and soon after he had a child.

The wedding came as a surprise to many of his team-mates, not least because they did not even know he had a partner.

So the big changes to his life occurred in his last two seasons at Barcelona when, essentially, he grew up.

He worked at home with a physiotherapist and frequently went to France to receive specialised preventative treatments. With the eyes and mind of a father, he began to see things differently.

He finally took on board the importance of good nutrition and, for the past few seasons, has employed a French nutritionist who has helped him maintain a healthier lifestyle.

Dembele has never lacked confidence, is super-passionate about football and arrived in Paris in August 2023 convinced of his ability to succeed at the club, despite the presence at the time of Mbappe.

Last summer, manager Luis Enrique told Dembele that, without Mbappe in the team, he needed more goals from him to go with his large number of assists – carte blanche for the player to show a more selfish approach with less passing and a bigger desire to score.

In private, the coaching staff have frequently told him that if he managed to convert a decent percentage of the chances he creates, it can lead to collective success and then individual honours. The Ballon d’Or even.

He has taken it all on board and is relishing playing in his new tactical role.

Last season, he was mostly played on the right. Now he operates as a false nine, inside, where he touches the ball more, enjoys a greater freedom to receive passes and participate in the build-up but with more chances to finish.

He is enjoying talking about tactics, about how to improve and about understanding the game. He is now the complete opposite of how he was perceived by many at Barcelona.

And the goals have flowed, his tally of 27 coming from all angles.

It has not all been smooth sailing for Dembele in Paris though. Despite his quiet facade, he still has fire inside.

In September, following PSG’s 3-1 victory over Rennes, there was a heated exchange between player and manager – leading to Dembele’s exclusion from the squad for a subsequent Champions League match against Arsenal.

Luis Enrique emphasised the importance of players fulfilling their responsibilities to the team, saying: “When a player doesn’t meet their obligations, this is the sort of thing that can happen.

” The best thing I did was not to play him in London against Arsenal, even though that was heavily criticised. This is my best decision of the year. He did the rest himself. “

Dembele did not like the way he had been talked to by the manager in front of the squad and overreacted. Soon after he apologised.

He was also sent off against Bayern Munich and after that, spending two games on the bench, it was incorrectly suggested that Luis Enrique had punished him.

He was actually rested because the coach thought he was a bit unfocused and needed a mental rest. Those two games were two unexpected draws against Nantes and Auxerre.

A few weeks ago we saw a video of training with the two men hugging and laughing.

Luis Enrique was also full of praise for Dembele after he scored twice in the play-off first-leg win against Brest.

” Ask him what he has had for breakfast since Christmas! Actually those who see him regularly are not surprised, “he said.

For some time many have believed that the holy grail of a Champions League triumph for PSG might be dependent on the on-field achievements of one of France’s heroes.

Australian Grand Prix

Venue: Albert Park, Melbourne Dates: 14 March-16 March Race start: 04: 00 GMT on Sunday, 16 March

After a three-month break, the 2025 Formula 1 season is almost upon us.

The Australian Grand Prix this weekend is the first of 24 races between now and Abu Dhabi in December.

There are plenty of talking points with Lewis Hamilton preparing for his Ferrari debut, Max Verstappen chasing a fifth consecutive drivers ‘ title and McLaren hoping to maintain the pace that brought them the constructors ‘ championship in 2024.

Hamilton has been clear – he is going to Ferrari to win an eighth world title.

When a driver of that level goes to such a storied team, it’s obvious what the target is. So, questions about whether too much is expected of him miss the point – he and Ferrari expect that of themselves.

The impact of such an achievement would be massive.

Hamilton’s move to Ferrari has already dramatically increased interest in F1 in the run-up to this season. Imagine what the reaction would be to the sport’s most celebrated driver breaking the only remaining all-time record while driving for its most iconic team.

Will he do it? That depends on two things. Whether the Ferrari car is up to it, and whether Hamilton can beat his team-mate, Charles Leclerc.

As for comparisons with Alonso and Vettel, neither managed to win the title they and Ferrari so craved.

Alonso was plain unlucky – he should have won in 2010 and 2012. He was outstanding in both years, especially in 2012.

Had it not been for a catastrophic strategy decision in Abu Dhabi in 2010, and two separate assaults from two different Lotus drivers at the start of two different grands prix in 2012, he would have been champion.

Vettel’s situation was more complex – arguably he and Ferrari threw away chances in both 2017 and 2018 through a combination of driver errors and team fallibility. Many people believe Alonso would have won at least one of those titles had he stayed at Ferrari.

But that was then. The belief is that this is about as good a time as Hamilton could go to Ferrari.

In Frederic Vasseur, they have a team boss who has given the team a more international outlook, and is very matter-of-fact and focused on practicality. He seems to be having a good effect and moving them in the right direction.

Every season is critical in F1 – people are always looking for signs of weakness. But the stakes are quite high for Russell this year, and that’s almost independent of Max Verstappen.

Russell is out of contract at the end of the year, and his new team-mate is an 18-year-old rookie, Andrea Kimi Antonelli. From the point of view of his reputation within the sport, Russell has to come out on top.

If he doesn’t, though, that does not necessarily mean his Mercedes career is over. But it would mean Antonelli had marked himself out as a potential future great.

If Verstappen is not available, Toto Wolff will stick with his current driver line-up into 2026 – Russell has come out of three seasons with Lewis Hamilton and just about won bragging rights. He has earned his status as one of F1’s very top drivers.

The pressure is also on Antonelli, even though his raw talent is believed to be immense. If he is comfortably beaten by Russell, he won’t be around long. Such is the way of things in F1.

If you asked that question to Max Verstappen himself, I know exactly what he would say. He fears no one.

Verstappen is absolutely confident that if he is given a car in which it is possible to win the title, he will win it. Doesn’t matter who the opponent is.

How he gets on with someone out of the car has no bearing whatsoever on his behaviour in it – you only have to look at last year’s Mexico City Grand Prix and his two penalised incidents with Norris to see that.

He is as ruthless as they come, and anyone who gets in his way will get the same treatment.

There has been for some time widespread concern within Formula 1 about the actions of Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the president of governing body the FIA, and nothing over the winter has changed that.

Ben Sulayem has been embroiled in a series of controversies since he took office in December 2021, and his recent actions in changing the FIA’s internal rules to reduce accountability, and codifying a method by which drivers can be banned for swearing have just added to a long list of actions perceived to be problematic by many within the sport.

At the moment, though, there is no open conflict between F1 and the FIA, nor between the teams and the FIA.

However, everyone in the sport is very aware of the growing disquiet within the FIA itself – the latest facet of which was revealed by BBC Sport last week in its report on a number of world motorsport council members being barred from its latest meeting, a dispute that could yet see further legal action.

With an FIA presidential election looming at the end of the year, the sport’s bosses are keeping a close eye on events. But unless Ben Sulayem does something that directly affects F1 business, it is unlikely F1 itself will take any action.

The idea of introducing an extra pit stop into the Monaco Grand Prix has been given a guardedly warm response so far.

The hope is that this will add extra excitement to the race and reduce its tendency to become a procession.

Lewis Hamilton said he believed it was his idea originally, and added: “Monaco has to be at least a two-stop. The one-stop was never really great.

” That (two stops) won’t fix it all. We’ll still see some of the issues of not overtaking and stuff, but I think it will make it more exciting. “

Some, though, have wondered whether this was a reaction to a particularly bad event last year, which was itself caused by a specific set of circumstances.

Last year, there was a first-lap crash that led to a red flag. So all the front-runners fitted a set of tyres to get them to the end of the race, and planned not to stop again. That led to Charles Leclerc leading the race at a pedestrian pace and nothing happening.

But it’s not like that every year. Regardless of the difficulty in overtaking, Monaco has seen a series of interesting races in recent years, some influenced by weather, and others by problems experienced by one driver or another.

The mandatory two-stop has been arrived at as a necessary evil – introducing an element of artificiality to ameliorate a specific problem.