As we approach the business end of the season, the Champions League begins in earnest and two top talents teeter on the edge of greatness: Ousmane Dembele and Raphinha wouldn’t have been high on many people’s list of Ballon d’Or contenders last August, but this duo enter the quarter-finals as the two favourites for football’s most illustrious individual award.
And what further links this unlikely pairing – now among the leading men for two of the continent’s best sides – is that they are in the midst of finally delivering on the promising signs from earlier in their careers.
