Mousa Sidi Yaya Dembélé (born 16 July 1987) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder.
He was regarded as one of the best box-to-box midfielders in Europe due to his excellent dribbling skills and ability to maintain possession.
Dembélé started his career at Belgian Pro League team Germinal Beerschot before spells at Eredivisie sides Willem II and AZ in the Netherlands.
2004
He made his debut on 24 April 2004 against Charleroi.
2005
In 2005, he signed for the youth section of Willem II, despite apparent interest from Eredivisie giants AFC Ajax.
Dembélé spent the 2005–06 season in the Eredivisie with Willem II.
The team had a very poor season that year, but Dembélé nonetheless scored nine times.
2006
Dembélé accumulated 82 caps for the Belgium national team from 2006 to 2018.
Dembélé was born in Wilrijk, Antwerp, Belgium.
His father Yaya is Malian, while his mother, Tilly Huygens, is Belgian of Flemish ethnicity.
Dembélé is a Muslim.
Dembélé uses the spelling "Mousa" for his first name (e.g. on his Twitter account ), and so do his club, national team and most news articles about him.
After the season, he attracted further interest from the bigger Eredivisie teams and was subsequently transferred to AZ in the summer of 2006.
In 2006–07, Dembélé was one of the most important players of Louis van Gaal's team.
They were poised to win the championship but on the last day lost the title to PSV and only finished third after losing 3–2 to Excelsior.
AZ also lost the final of the KNVB Beker against AFC Ajax.
Dembélé scored after two minutes played, but AZ lost 8–7 after a penalty shootout, with Dembélé scoring AZ's fifth penalty attempt.
AZ further lost the play-off final for qualification to the Champions League, again to Ajax.
Dembélé scored six times that season.
2007
The season of 2007–08 was a very disappointing season for AZ.
2008
The 2008–09 season started disappointingly as well for Dembélé's team after two defeats, but then AZ started to win more games and eventually won the championship.
Dembélé was out injured from October until December with a knee injury, but on his return, he was hailed as being one of the players of the season in the Eredivisie.
2009
He won the league title and the Johan Cruyff Shield with the latter in 2009.
2010
Dembélé transferred to Premier League side Fulham in 2010 before joining Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £15 million in August 2012.
Dembélé was said to be "edging closer" to join English Premier League club Birmingham City, but on 12 August 2010, Dembélé declined a move to Birmingham in favour of London club Fulham.
On 18 August 2010, Fulham announced that Dembélé had joined from AZ on a three-year deal for a fee of £5 million.
Dembélé made an excellent start to his career at Fulham.
He made his début on 22 August 2010, coming on as a substitute against Manchester United.
He capped his first start for the club with a goal, scoring the second of six goals against Port Vale in the League Cup on 25 August.
The same week, Dembélé made his first league start against Blackpool in which he provided two assists.
The first of the two was a cross to Bobby Zamora following a good run in the box, while the second gave Fulham a draw and a point; he dodged past a couple of Blackpool players before playing a good ball for an on-rushing Dickson Etuhu to make the score (and final result) 2–2.
Dembélé scored two league goals against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 11 September in a 2–1 win, his first league goals for Fulham.
He then scored a great solo goal against Tottenham Hotspur, running from the halfway line before powerfully placing his shot beyond goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.
This was voted the Fulham "Goal of the Season" by the Fulham fans.
2012
He was ranked 91st in The Guardian's list of the 100 best current footballers in 2012.
They finished 12th, with Dembélé scoring four times for them.
2016
However, in a 2016 interview, he said that the proper spelling ought to be "Moussa".
2018
In a 2018 interview he further clarified that his first name was accidentally misspelled "Mousa" when he had to renew his passport one time and then just decided to keep on using it that way.
Dembélé played for K. Berchem Sport as a youth.
He started his professional career for Germinal Beerschot, a team in the Belgian Pro League.
