When the clock struck midnight on May 31, the tolling bells marked the end of the line for a Celtic starlet once tipped for the very top.
There was no fanfare or fuss as Karamoko Dembele’s Parkhead contract quietly expired and, over a month later, he has started a new chapter at new club Brest – putting pen to paper on a four-year deal with France’s 11th-best team.
The same could not be said when the teen sensation exploded into the global spotlight six years earlier.
Karamoko Dembele was tipped to ‘revolutionise football’ as he burst onto the scene with Celtic
Six years on after exploding into the global spotlight, his Celtic deal was allowed to expire and the 19-year-old has since joined France’s 11th-best team Brest on a four-year deal
In October 2016, Dembele made headlines around the world when he made his debut for Celtic’s Under 20s at the tender age of just 13.
Coming on for the last nine minutes of a 3-1 win over Hearts, the diminutive attacker replaced Jack Aitchison, the 16-year-old who had become Celtic’s youngest ever debutant and youngest scorer in a 7-0 home win over Motherwell five months previously.
It seemed big things lay in store for Dembele, who had burst to prominence seven months earlier when he beat stars from Barcelona, Deportivo La Coruna, Lyon and West Brom to be named Player of the Tournament at the prestigious St Kevin’s Boys Academy Cup for the Under 13s in Dublin.
Clips posted online showed the little winger leaving markers, including the likes of Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Xavi Simons, for dead as well as a fine eye for goal at the competition run by the boys club that nurtured future Ireland internationals like Liam Brady and Damien Duff.
Before that, Celtic’s U13s had also won the Bassevelde Cup in Belgium, beating a highly-rated Borussia Dortmund side in the final.
Dembele was named Player of the Tournament at the prestigious St Kevin’s Boys Academy Cup for the Under 13s in Dublin
Dembele was again named Player of the Tournament. The last time Celtic won that prestigious trophy, Aiden McGeady lifted the award and went on to play for Celtic, Spartak Moscow, Everton, Sunderland, the Republic of Ireland and now Hibernian.
David Feeney, Dembele’s former coach at Park Villa in Glasgow, certainly believed the pint-sized prodigy had the ability and application to go to the very top.
‘I think he is very similar to Lionel Messi. If he has the…