It was always going to be difficult for Ousmane Dembele to live up to his price tag at Barcelona.

The Frenchman joined from Borussia Dortmund back in 2017 for a reported €105 million, with a further €40m attached in add-ons. 

That made him the club's record signing and at the time, the third most expensive player in history after Neymar and Paul Pogba. 

Indeed, much of Dembele's fee was dubbed 'the Neymar money', with the Brazilian having left for PSG. 

Dembele had first attracted Europe-wide attention at Rennes, before going on to shine for Dortmund in the Bundesliga. 

It all meant he arrived to huge fanfare at Camp Nou and as is tradition, Barcelona put on a huge unveiling ceremony so fans could catch their first glimpse of the youngster. 

Unfortunately, it didn't go to plan.

Dembele's unveiling

You might remember that his 'skills' immediately went viral for his attempt as he made even a few kick-ups look like hard work and his rainbow flick completely backfired. 

Ouch. There's only so much you can tell from an unveiling, but sadly Dembele's time at Barcelona hasn't been smooth sailing from then on. 

Injuries have blighted his Blaugrana career so far and in four seasons, he's only made 111 appearances in all competitions, scoring 29 goals. 

With just five La Liga goals this term, he'll want to be doing much better - but let's not forget he's still only 23. 

If it's any consolation, he's not the only Barcelona player who got off to a nightmare start on his first day. 

Paulinho hit the headlines for a similarly hapless unveiling. Now that was a bizarre signing all round. 

Martin Braithwaite suffered the same fate in 2020 after his shock move to Catalonia.

There had been high hopes for Dembele, though. In fact, there's even more pressure on him to deliver after it emerged recently that Barcelona might have sign Kylian Mbappe instead. 

The club decided it was Dembele who was a 'better fit' for their system.

Maybe that unveiling was a bad omen after all.