how Karamoko Dembélé landed in Ligue 1 to revive

« It will not be long before we see the little Dembélé at the forefront of the Celtic attack with the great Dembélé (Moussa editor’s note). » “The youngster has the world at his feet. He has all the arsenal to add his name to the long list of players to have passed through the doors of Parkhead. « Child prodigy », « nugget », the compliments quickly appeared for Karamoko Dembélé who distinguished himself at 13 with the U20s of Celtic Glasgow. Quickly offering a fratricidal duel between Scotland and England so that he joined one or the other selection (10 caps, 1 goal with Scotland in U16 and U17, 17 caps, 3 goals with England U15, U16, U17 and U18), Karamoko Dembélé had a very important exposure despite his young age. The then coach of the Bhoys Brendan Rodgers first team was also quite suspicious: “He has a lot to learn, he still needs to improve a lot. He is only 13 years old. He’s a promising talent, but he’s only 13 years old. We have to be very careful with the young players, we mustn’t expose him anymore. He loves Celtic, he and his family are happy to be there, he has to be released when he plays. We will see in 3-4 years if he can play in the first team. He is at a crucial stage in his progress. Let him work to make it to the first team.

Interesting beginnings but…

Continuing to go through the stages until joining the Celtic Glasgow first team, Karamoko Dembélé finally made her professional debut on May 20, 2019 during the final day of the championship. Then 16 years old, the native of London with a small size (1m67) showed interesting things and his coach Neil Lennon did not lack qualifiers to comment on his young colt: “Dembélé is the kind of player we want at Celtic. He puts the public at his feet. Everyone talks to me about technical qualities, but there is also the intelligence of the game. Obviously, we have to be careful, but it is good that the supporters have been able to see a glimpse of what will be the future . The little one is 16 years old, we know how talented he is and want him to progress in the best way. I did not hesitate to give him 45 minutes. However, Karamoko Dembélé’s rise has since been curbed. Playing only 2 matches and having 23 minutes of play in the following exercise, he did not receive much more playing time in the 2020/2021 exercise with 5 matches played (45 minutes) for 1 goal scored.

Precisely, the interim coach John Kennedy brought down the « hype » after this realization and asked for patience: “There is a lot of speculation that Karamoko is out of contract this summer. I don’t know where it came from, because he still has a year left. He’s a young player and every young player has a different background. Karamoko has been talked about as the next superstar, but people develop physically at different rates. He still needs to improve in this area, but he is a formidable talent, we know that. It is not a symbolic gesture (to have brought him into play), he has been training well recently. With a rather frail physique, Karamoko Dembélé also had to face big competition this season with a magical duo made up of Kyogo Furuhashi (27 years old) and Jota (23 years old) but also the Israeli nugget Liel Abada who broke everything this season (10 goals and 7 offerings in 36 league matches).

Brest to finally launch his professional career

Playing only 2 games (20 minutes of play) for his last year of contract, he is not yet ready for the demands of the first team according to his last coach at Celtic Ange Postecoglou: “Luckily with him, we can buy him playing time in the B team. Johnny Kenny is another. They train with us every day but, like I said, the training is super competitive. We have 26 or 27 players who all want to not only be in the first team but also in the squad at the weekend and we have some fantastic players who are missing from the squad. So, like I said, with Karamoko, he trains with us every day. It’s great that he can play with the B team, they have good matches to come tomorrow and then Tuesday. Also experiencing a few small physical glitches in pre-season, Karamoko Dembélé will clearly not have managed to find a lasting path in the first team, multiplying the comings and goings with the Celtic B team.

Finally still blocked, Karamoko Dembélé decided not to extend at Celtic Glasgow in order to find playing time elsewhere. As we revealed to you, Stade Brestois 29 positioned itself and was finally able to sign its number 18 for four seasons. A long-term bet for the Breton club and the player who want to take advantage of this collaboration to grow together. “I came to Brest because I saw that the project presented by Greg Lorenzi was good. It’s something that suits me and I think I can have some playing time here. It’s a great opportunity that presented itself to me and I was interested. I’m very explosive, I like to have fun and give it to the fans and. I like to score and win”has thus released the phenomenon of precocity which intends to start again on a good basis after 2/3 seasons of chomping at the bit.