{"id":670208,"date":"2026-06-07T05:36:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T09:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=670208"},"modified":"2026-06-07T05:42:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T09:42:19","slug":"ousmane-dembele-leicester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/07\/ousmane-dembele-leicester\/","title":{"rendered":"It Almost Happened: Ousmane Dembele Joins Leicester"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Welcome to a new series of articles from Last Word on Football. Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at the transfers, sackings, appointments and more that almost happened in football, changing the game we all know and love. Here<\/span>, we look back at the time when then-wonderkid Ousmane Dembele was in talks over a move to Leicester City.<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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It Almost Happened: Ousmane Dembele Joins Leicester<\/h2>\n

The Lead Up<\/h3>\n

In today’s context, it’s utterly bizarre to hear Ousmane Dembele and Leicester City in the same conversation. The current Ballon d’Or holder and two-time Champions League winner at little Leicester is a fantasy idea. However, only a decade ago, it could have happened.<\/p>\n

Dembele was coming off the back of a breakout season for Rennes, scoring 12 goals in Ligue 1. He scooped up the Young Player of the Year award and was garnering interest from everywhere. In all fairness, it’s not often you see an 18-year-old hitting double figures in their first season of men’s football.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/strong>: <\/span>It Almost Happened: Nigel Pearson Sacked Before The Great Escape<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, over 500 miles away, Leicester City were making their own headlines. Under Claudio Ranieri’s leadership, the Foxes did the unthinkable by winning the Premier League title, as 5000-1 underdogs. With this newfound success, the following transfer window was always going to be interesting. More money in the bank, and a whole new market to buy in. It’s no surprise a young talent like Dembele was high on the list of targets.<\/p>\n

Claudio Ranieri Chats to Ousmane Dembele<\/h3>\n

Heading into the eagerly anticipated 2016\/17 season, City were trying to strengthen, especially with Champions League football on the horizon. They added the likes of Islam Slimani, Ahmed Musa and Nampalys Mendy, though all three never really became solidified starters during their spell in the East Midlands.<\/p>\n

Dembele was also a target, with Ranieri even having a chat with him; however, the Frenchman turned the Foxes down as he had already decided on his next move. “I had Ranieri on the phone. I was surprised to hear from him, but I told him I would not be going to Leicester,” he explained<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/strong>: <\/span>It Almost Happened: Johan Cruyff Joins Leicester<\/a><\/p>\n

“I do hope to be playing Champions League [next season], but I know where I’m going, and it’s final.” In the end, he moved to Borussia Dortmund, where he once again impressed. Dembele was in the Bundesliga Team of the Season and won the Rookie of the Year award, whilst tallying 30 goal contributions in all competitions. Ironically, both Leicester and Dortmund reached the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals that year, with the Foxes putting up a valiant effort against Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n

With Dembele becoming the second most expensive player ever after just one season at Dortmund, it is astonishing to think that he was in talks with Leicester. It would have been a game-changing move; one could only imagine how good a front three of Dembele, Vardy and Mahrez would have been.<\/p>\n

Featured Image Credit<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

IMAGO \/ Pro Sports Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to a new series of articles from Last Word on Football. Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at the transfers, sackings, appointments and more that almost happened in football, changing the game we all know and love. Here, we look back at the time when then-wonderkid Ousmane Dembele was in talks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5391,"featured_media":658032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,15,3],"tags":[414,1359],"class_list":["post-670208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-championship","category-leicester-city","category-premier-league","tag-claudio-ranieri","tag-ousmane-dembele"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5391"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670208"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":670563,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670208\/revisions\/670563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}