BOSTON — Scoring a hat trick at a World Cup doesn’t happen every day; if anything, nearly every player goes their entire career without doing it.
Diego Maradona and the original Ronaldo, R9, never did it. Neither did Neymar, Thierry Henry or Johan Cruyff, and when it comes to French football history, only Just Fontaine in 1958 and Kylian Mbappé in 2022 had done it before.
Forget netting three times; even a brace for France was something that had proved impossible for Ousmane Dembélé in 61 previous appearances. Until last Friday, that is, when his hat trick in France’s 4-1 win over Norway, in the space of 25 minutes (the second quickest in World Cup history), changed everything.
It changed Dembele’s 2026 World Cup, his story with the national team, his own momentum and his own status as France prepare to face Sweden on Tuesday in New Jersey in the round of 32.
Prior to the Norway game, all the talk around France had been focused on the connection between Mbappé and Michael Olise. Back home, the debate was around Dembélé, the third musketeer of this incredible French attack, and it was negative in nature.
What was the problem with the PSG forward? Why could France not get the Paris Saint-Germain version of Dembélé? Where should he play? How could we get the best out of him? Yet all the talk ignores that he is the reigning Ballon d’Or holder — arguably making him the best player in the world — a back-to-back Champions League winner, and a player transformed in the last three years by his work with Luis Enrique in Paris.
However, in the France shirt, Dembele has often looked laborious, bar rare moments of brilliance. Prior to the Iraq game (a 3-0 win) a few days earlier, a game in which he scored one and assisted another, Dembélé had never even been decisive in a big tournament (Euros or World Cup) almost a decade after his debut for les Bleus. It was an enigma as to why the forward, so good for his clubs, wasn’t able to reproduce that form at the international level.
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Dembélé wasn’t worried in private. He was still very much one of the leaders within the squad, and certainly the heart and soul; on the pitch though, he was stuttering and stuck in the shadow of Mbappé and Olise. And as much as he told his entourage that he knew the turning point would come, he still grew a bit frustrated by the criticism coming from French media. He doesn’t usually care too much about what people say, but this time, he was a bit rattled.
So, after his first goal against Norway, his celebration was one for the press box: a gesture with his right hand, in a way to shut some people’s mouths.
It is not the first time a French player used a goal celebration to fire back at critics. Christophe Dugarry did it at the 1998 World Cup, and Samir Nasri at the 2012 Euros. The situation for them was far more toxic than it is with Dembélé, but the PSG winger was still stung by some of the conversations around him.
After the Norway game, as he got the match ball signed by all his teammates who welcomed him back to the dressing room by shouting “MVP, MVP, MVP,” he had to appear in front of the media as the player of the match. His move: giving the same answer to six different questions.
“We have to stay focused!” Dembélé was in no mood to give a good line to the media.
To further make his point, he even said that he “preferred his performance against Senegal,” a game in which he didn’t score. He had always thought, and Deschamps agreed, that his role for Les Bleus was not just about scoring goals or providing assists, but more with his overall activity. For former France defender Samuel Umtiti, a 2018 World Cup winner alongside Dembélé in Russia, there was no debate.
“He will never be with France like he is with PSG. They are two different teams with two different styles of football where he plays in two different positions” he told ESPN.
Some people were calling for Deschamps to build more the team around “Dembouz,” though it was clear the head coach was never going to do it. All he wanted was for his No. 7 to get the extra bit of confidence to feel free and perform like he could.
Deschamps and Dembélé had long one-on-one discussions about it. After trying to play as a No. 10 in more central positions against Senegal in the first half, he reverted to placing him on the right wing, where he was good against Iraq and then excellent against Norway. Deschamps showed his support to Dembélé after his performance against Iraq.
“Maybe you will get off his case now and find another target,” he told journalists. “There haven’t been any issues with him, he is just adapting to a system he is not used to playing in during the rest of the year. Once he is in good form physically, it is only a matter of making adjustments.”
It looks like the adjustments have been made, and France’s Dembélé has finally arrived. And if Scandinavians inspire him, Swedish defenders will have to be worried before facing him on Tuesday.
