Ousmane Dembélé stands out as a false nine and is the top scorer of 2025

Ousmane is a new man. Positioned in the centre of PSG's attack as a false nine, he is breaking records for the best centre forwards. After just six games, even staying on the bench for the last Coupe de France, he is the top scorer of 2025 with 11 goals. Similarly, the 'mosquito' leads the list of top scorers in Ligue 1 with 14 goals, surpassing Mason Greenwood by 1. The Vernon native sends a ball into the back of the net every 80 minutes in the domestic championship.

Dembélé has started the new year with great enthusiasm. So far, no one has managed to score more than the Frenchman. He is followed by the former Sevilla player En-Nesyri, who has managed to get 11 of his shots into the nets of the opposition's goals, although his mark has come in 9 games, 3 more than the Frenchman has needed. The podium is completed by Marcos Leonardo, from Al-Ahli with 10 goals. Behind them are Alex Martins (Dewa United) and Emam Ashour (Al Ahly), with 9. The representatives of the five major leagues in this regard are Mbappé and Lautaro Martínez, with 8.

The rebirth of Dembélé

'Ous' arrived at PSG in the summer of 2023 in exchange for 50 million euros from FC Barcelona in a very controversial operation. Xavi Hernández had made many efforts to retain him and pamper him, even contradicting the directives of the board. When it seemed that he was beginning to establish himself as an important player in the Blaugrana team, he left for Paris. In his first season under Luis Enrique, sharing a dressing room with his friend Kylian Mbappé, he scored 6 goals and gave 12 assists in 42 games. His numbers did not make the difference.

Everything changed this campaign. With the team's star leaving for Real Madrid as a free agent, the French team needed a new leader. The one appointed for this was Dembélé. Despite this decision, his performance was not as expected in the first half of the season. His attitude, for a time, was not either, so Luis Enrique left him out of the squad for the Champions League match against Arsenal: "If someone seriously does not fulfill the obligations they have in the team, that for me means that they are not ready," said the Asturian coach.

'Dembouz' finished 2024 with 8 goals and 6 assists in 21 games, quite positive numbers for the short time of competition that had been played. However, at the beginning of 2025, the Frenchman has gone wild: he has scored 11 goals in 6 matches. With 19 goals in total, he is at the highest point of his career, as the most he had scored was 14 in the 18/19 season, his second as a Barça player.

After scoring a hat-trick against Stuttgart in a game in which PSG needed to score to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League, the Frenchman explained: "What I like most about playing as a false nine is that I am much closer to the goal. As soon as I dribble past a player I am in front of the goal and I have the lucidity to score. In addition, we change positions a lot during the game." So, it seems that Luis Enrique has found the golden formula to get the most out of the 'mosquito'.