Dembélé ‘My love for Barça began at eight’

My love for Barça began at 8

I remember two games especially. One against Chelsea, when [Andres] Iniesta scored the goal to qualify for the Champions League final. When I see Andres now I remember it. I can’t wait to tell him. And the other was a Champions League game against Arsenal. Barcelona had not done great in the first leg but in the second leg they produced a brilliant performance, with four goals from [Lionel] Messi. That’s when I realised Messi’s not from this world. It was incredible. Regrettably, I have never been to Camp Nou.

My passion for Barça came from Iniesta

I had a poster of Iniesta. He seemed like a different player to me: elegant, special… a genius. I watched all the Barcelona games to see how they played and the geniuses, Iniesta and Messi. After, I tried to imitate them but… It was difficult because they do things that no one does. Messi always plays at a sublime level. He’s the best player in history. 

I didn’t sign for Barça last year because it was too soon

At that time I’d been a professional at Rennes for just six months. It was too soon. I wanted to learn, play Champions League games, know what that competition was, to play a whole season with a big team, playing regularly, developing. I would have learned a lot in training but joining Barca at that time would have halted my progression. Luckily Barcelona have come back for a second time and this time I could not let the train pass. 

I want to learn from the others, not to win Ballon d’Or

Winning Ballon d’Or is not a challenge in my life. My objective is to learn from the best in the world, to integrate myself into the team. I am only 20. Personal titles aren’t something which motivate me. My first target is to intergrate myself into the team. To offer good performances on the pitch and, with the whole team, to win as many trophies as possible. 

I refused to train with Dortmund because I didn’t want to anymore

I was relaxed. It was a question of negotiation between Barça and Borussia. I knew I had to have patience. I decided to stop going training. I didn’t want to go. I looked for an excuse not to go. If it didn’t work out and I hadn’t done my part to get the move to Barça, now I would be lamenting the fact I wasn’t here. 

I am not scared to join Barça at 20 but I was nervous the deal would fall through

I’m not scared. I am impressed. I’m focused on getting up to speed because I hadn’t trained for two weeks. There’s little else I can do apart from get to know how things work here and keep assimilating. But I was nervous about the deal, although I could rest at night. I just wanted it to go through as quickly as possible. Now it’s time to get back training and get back in shape, which is not too hard given my age and my weight. I don’t know if it will be difficult for me to adapt. I hope not. They play differently here. It’s another way of understanding football. Here it’s about possession, passing. I’ve followed it a lot on television. I hope to learn to play like this, although my qualities are speed, attacking, one-on-ones…

I am not Neymar

Neymar is a great player with a lot of class, one of the best in the world. I am young, I am here to learn and to add what I can to Barcelona. 

Kylian Mbappe helped me

He’s a really good colleague. We speak a lot on the phone and even more during this process. He’s happy for me. He tried to calm me down when the days were passing and the signing wasn’t made official. He told me it was a question of time. He was really happy for me when I signed, he congratulated me, wished me the best. I wish him the best, too.