Liverpool can unlock Barcola's Ballon d'Or potential with Dembele blueprint

Updated: 12 Sept 2026 07:24 BST |
5 min read

Make us your Google favourite

Liverpool fans have already seen a glimpse of what made Bradley Barcola so frustrating during his time at PSG – but also why he could become so good.

Article continues under the video

Presented with a golden opportunity to score his first Liverpool goal in front of the Kop, the club’s marquee summer signing fluffed his lines in the face of Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak. Not that it mattered. Liverpool went on to win the Champions League clash 2-1.

The expectations for the €125 million arrival are much higher, though. And rightly so. Barcola is a player with Ballon d’Or potential if harnessed correctly.

Barcola has already seen the Dembele transformation up close

Barcola has, after all, worked with some of the best in the world. During his time at PSG, he can count Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele among his team-mates. The 24-year-old has seen what is required to reach that level and has first-hand knowledge of how it can be attained.

When Dembele joined PSG in a €50m deal from Barcelona in 2023, the very idea of him winning such an individual prize was generally dismissed. He had become something of a joke figure during his time at Camp Nou, a player whose injury problems and inconsistency had become his trademark.

While Barcola’s body has largely held up, he is a young man who has similar weaknesses in his game to his former PSG colleague. He possesses the same explosiveness, the same pace and direct dribbling ability, but when it comes to execution, he can fall short.

Luis Enrique often had to defend the winger’s frustrating tendency to miss big chances in front of the media, citing his “strong personality” as a reason for constantly finding himself in scoring positions.

But if Barcola wants to fulfil his potential and become one of the very best in the world, he has to become more clinical.

Bradley Barcola was PSG's fourth-choice attacker — © IMAGO – Bradley Barcola was PSG’s fourth-choice attacker

The Dembele blueprint Barcola must follow at Liverpool

During his final season with PSG, he was clearly the weakest of an admittedly outstanding front line. Indeed, when it came to goals and assists per 90 minutes, he ranked fifth among his team-mates.

Barcola delivered a goal contribution (goal or assist) on average 0.58 times per 90, which was less than half of that of Dembele (1.28), but he also trailed Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (0.9), Desire Doue (0.76) and Goncalo Ramos (0.67).

His figure, though, is around the level that Dembele was playing before he exploded in the 2024/25 season to become a Ballon d’Or winner.

PSG’s attackers (all competitions 2025/26)

Name	Goals (G)	Assists (A)	G+A per 90
Ousmane Dembele	20	11	1.28
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia	18	10	0.90
Desire Doue	13	8	0.76
Goncalo Ramos	12	1	0.67
Bradley Barcola	13	6	0.58

So what shifted for Dembele, and could it also change for Barcola?

He was certainly helped by a shift into a false 9 position from the wing – something that no one is forecasting for former Lyon kid Barcola at PSG – but there was also a crucial change of mentality too.

“For me, a forward isn’t allowed to cheat,” Dembele told France Football at the end of the 2024/25 season. “He has to put the effort in all the time, whether that’s in a defensive sense or an attacking sense, to help the team and not just when we’re attacking.”

But for the PSG winger this idea of not ‘cheating’ has also extended to the training ground. Hours of extra work were put into his finishing. The immediate result was a 33-goal season that obliterated his previous best of 14.

This is the type of shift that Barcola needs to make if he is to unlock the best version of himself at Liverpool and to defy the odds by becoming one of the best in the world.