Ousmane Dembele: Barcelona star's Lewandowski assist showed transformed attitude

To say Ousmane Dembele’s Barcelona career to date has been a rollercoaster would be quite the understatement.

After signing for the club back in 2017 for an eye-watering £112.5 million, the Frenchman came to Spain riding a tsunami of fan hype and optimism.

In the years that followed, though, he’s been unable to live up to the lofty expectations many had of him.

Much of that can be attributed to his unfortunately injury-prone nature, as well as arguably struggling under the weight of expectation in the spotlight.

However, he has shown flashes of sheer genius for the Camp Nou faithful to delight over, whilst his record of 71 goal involvements in 155 games isn’t too shabby either.

As a result, the decision makers at Barca saw fit to offer him a new contract last summer with the catch being that he took an enormous pay cut to stay with the club.

Understandably, that rattled Dembele, who refused the contract and became a free agent for a period, missing pre-season training in the process.

It was an uncertain time for Dembele with Xavi Hernandez keen to keep the star on the books but with the board seemingly happy to offload his hefty wages.

Many Barca fans questioned the star’s attitude, pointing to previous misdemeanours in which he would turn up late for training and show a lack of respect to the club and his teammates to support their point.

Eventually, however, Dembele agreed to a reported 40% drop in his weekly salary and was reinstated a Barca player once more – albeit with some added pressure to perform this time around.

But if the way he’s began this campaign is anything to go by, the 25-year-old is looking like a footballer renewed.

One moment that suggests a change in attitude could be the reason for that,