PSG were by far the best team in Europe last season, warming up after a slow start in the Champions League to end up as pretty much undisputed winners. They swatted aside Premier League giants Liverpool and Arsenal, then demolished Inter Milan in the final.
They have some brilliant players, with starlets like Vitinha, Desire Doue and William Pacho rising to the top of the game for the first time, and others like Fabian Ruiz finally getting the credit he deserves after years of excellent play at the top level. Anyone who put their latest no deposit casino bonuses on the Parisians after the group stage were handsomely rewarded.
Dembele the breakout star people had written off
But the real star for them was Ousmane Dembele. Once Barcelona’s record transfer, the Frenchman had to fall pretty far to rise again, but his form in front of goal this season was sensational, and put in the sort of hard-grafting; hyper efficient performances in big games that nobody would have thought he was capable of when he was being discarded as a show-pony not long ago.
So we ask the question: is a Joao Felix rebirth like Dembele’s possible?
Well the short answer is: probably not. And why not?
Well while Felix is definitely viewed as something of a show pony like Dembele is, full of nice touches and pretty flicks which make for nice highlights without actually affecting the course of the game much, he hasn’t showed any of the mental fortitude that Dembele needed to turn his career around.
After a vast payday, the former Dortmund winger could have given up. But he reinvented himself, and learned to relish the intensity and demands of manager Luis Enrique rather than move on to somewhere he can play a shallow game in peace.
Felix doesn’t show the true grit needed to fight back from adversity
Felix just hasn’t showed that side of his character yet. He suffered under similarly intense coach in Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid, and a lot of blame was given to the Argentine for limiting Felix’s game. But his subsequent seasons – on loan at Chelsea and Barcelona, then back to Chelsea and on loan at Milan – haven’t shown him making any improvements in the same weaknesses that have frustrated fans for so long.
A return to Benfica where he made his breakthrough would be great for him and for Chelsea, if a deal can be done. But it would be a very obvious surrender, and a return to his comfort zone, rather than a “rebirth” at the very top level like Dembele had.
