Ousmane Dembele, Raphinha and the two unlikely paths of Ballon d’Or favourites | OneFootball

As we approach the business end of the season, the Champions League begins in earnest and two top talents teeter on the edge of greatness: Ousmane Dembele and Raphinha wouldn’t have been high on many people’s list of Ballon d’Or contenders last August, but this duo enter the quarter-finals as the two favourites for football’s most illustrious individual award.

And what further links this unlikely pairing – now among the leading men for two of the continent’s best sides – is that they are in the midst of finally delivering on the promising signs from earlier in their careers.

Both could yet be on course to face off in the final of Europe’s premier cup competition in May, but whatever the outcome of their individual seasons, the duo’s ascent to this point has provided a refreshing reminder on the nature of player development, with both proving that it is never too late to deliver on undeniable talent. At 28 and 27 respectively, Raphinha and Dembele are hitting the prime of their careers.

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Ousmane Dembele and Raphinha could meet in the Champions League final (Getty Images)

In August 2017, Dembele moved from Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona in a £135m deal that became the second most expensive in football history.

One of the continent’s most promising talents was moving to a club that was famed as a youth talent factory, but as the 20-year-old hoped to settle in a team alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, the pressure of replacing Neymar weighed too heavy.

Dembele’s performance levels suffered, while he was subject to media reports alleging a poor attitude, with rumours of missed training sessions.

Around the same time, just over three years after the departure of Dembele, former club Rennes might have thought they had found their replacement for the Frenchman when they signed Brazilian winger Raphinha from Sporting CP.

Raphinha was left to thrive in a side with lower expectations, eventually moving to the Premier League side with Leeds United, where he put up respectable, encouraging numbers while showcasing his obvious talent in a team he was too good for.

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Raphinha was appointed Barcelona captain in 2024 (Getty Images)

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Raphinha scored a final-day goal to help Leeds stay up at the end of the 21/22 season (Getty Images)

And so when arrived the time for the Barcelona hierarchy to choose their next big-money winger, the Brazilian was seen as the perfect target. He joined the club for £55m in July 2022, and the Catalan club sold Dembele to PSG for just over £43.5m a year later.

But with Raphinha failing to hit the ground running in Catalonia while Dembele was still at the club, the duo fell into that category of player where it became uncertain whether they would ever deliver on their obvious ability.

The explosive entry of Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland into the spotlight can contribute to a phenomenon in which some players are consigned to questions surrounding their ability and development if they aren’t fulfilling certain goalscoring criteria in a stat-obsessed world.

And the sustained decade-plus of brilliance from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo has led to fans forgetting that most players will have peaks and troughs in their form over the course of a career.

For every player that was performing to a high level in their early 20s, you’ll find another who blossomed slightly later, or had these peaks and dips. A 26-year-old Luka Modric was voted La Liga’s worst summer signing halfway into his first season in Real Madrid, while Arjen Robben achieved so much at Bayern Munich after being discarded by Los Blancos.

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Dembele still won three La Liga titles and two Copas del Rey during his spell in Catalonia (Getty Images)

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Dembele was the most impressive player on the pitch across both legs of the last-16 tie against Liverpool (Getty Images)

And as the quarter-finals begin, it looks like both Dembele and Raphinha are finally hitting notable peaks.

The stats certainly suggest so – with the Frenchman having scored 32 goals in 40 games this season while his Brazilian counterpart has 27 in 44 – though anyone who watched PSG’s match against Liverpool at the Parc des Princes knows that the influence of these players goes far beyond the most commonly used metrics.

Both may yet fall short in their pursuit of club football’s ultimate prize, their seasons serve as a timely reminder that a footballer’s development is not always linear.

Barcelona and PSG have drawn plaudits so far this season for different reasons, from the quality of Hansi Flick’s tactical set-up to Luis Enrique’s re-working of the squad and his team’s style of play.

But for all the change at both clubs this term, it could yet be a previously maligned player signed from 17th-placed Leeds that captains Barcelona to a sixth Champions League trophy – or a gamble on a Barcelona cast-off that leads the Parisians to their first.