Ousmane Dembele’s World Cup pressure has sharpened before France face Iraq in Philadelphia on Monday night, with Bradley Barcola threatening to turn a PSG selection subplot into a bigger France debate.
Dembele arrived at the 2026 tournament as the reigning Ballon d’Or holder after Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League-winning year, but a fresh report has put a 70-year pattern back in focus. No reigning Ballon d’Or winner has gone on to lift the World Cup in the same cycle, and The Sun’s latest Dembele update frames the PSG forward as the next player trying to break that run.
Barcola gives France and PSG a live selection question
The timing matters because Dembele did not fully impose himself in France’s opening win over Senegal. Barcola, also of PSG, made the sharper impression after coming on and scoring, increasing the pressure around Didier Deschamps’ attacking choices before the Iraq match.
For PSG supporters, this is more than a national-team footnote. Dembele remains one of the club’s headline players, but Barcola’s directness and end product have given France another Paris-made option at exactly the point when tournament roles can harden quickly.
If Dembele starts and responds, the “curse” talk quickly becomes background noise. If Barcola is preferred, or again changes the game from the bench, PSG will have a different but equally fascinating World Cup story: one star carrying the weight of an individual crown, and another trying to steal the moment.
