Ousmane Dembélé Reveals why he Skipped Training in Dortmund

Following his less-than-cordial departure from the club, Ousmane Dembélé has spoken out about his final days at the club. In an interview he conducted with Sport, he admitted to trying to force a transfer:

Q: You stopped training with Borussia Dortmund to get the move, why? How was that for you?

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.

While the motivation he gives for his actions will hardly surprise anybody, what strikes me the most is just how unapologetic he seems. Saying that it was “just a question of negotiation,” makes it sound like the transfer was inevitable from the beginning, when in actuality, for a long period of time there was plenty of reasonable doubt about whether it would go through. It seems to me like an attempt to excuse his actions, as if to say, “The transfer was going to happen anyway, so it wasn’t necessary for me to go to training.”

I also find the sentence, “I knew I had to have patience,” to be quite interesting, because I see skipping training to force a move immediately as the opposite of patient.

What frustrates me the most is that he doesn’t even mention the fact his actions caused quite a rift between himself and the club, who suspended him, as well as his teammates, who openly spoke out against him. While we Dortmund fans will probably never see him in a positive light again, it would have been nice if he had at least shown some remorse for the disrespect that he showed the club and his teammates.

Alas, he seems to have chosen to cut ties permanently with the club. I’m sure he will get an earful from the Südtribune if Barcelona ever make their way to the Westfalenstadion.