The French coach, Didier Deschamps, appeared at a press conference and spoke about Ousmane Dembele's persistent lateness.
Barcelona winger Dembele has consistently shown a lack of professionalism, and it's now impacting on the minutes he's being played by Ernesto Valverde.
"I know his excuses when he arrives late," Deschamps said to gathered media.
"In his defence he will say: 'I am not the only one.'"
"Ousmane has a bit of a habit of being late," the coach continued.
"Whether for his club or in the French national team, he should be a little more attentive to the things that are part of the day-to-day life of an elite-level footballer.
"He is a young player and I do not lose hope that he will realise all these aspects.
"They are situations he keeps repeating, but the sooner he avoid thems, the better it will be for everyone."
In addition, the coach denied having exchanged messages with the Barcelona board regarding the player's behaviour.
"I don't interfere in the day to day running of the clubs," he added.
"It's up to them to manage the players as they see fit."
Rohcdiopsy
239
Fame and money have gone way ahead of his football career,he thinks he is marketable and will do as he wishes. Someone especially the France manager Didier Deschampa should talk to his parents they have a good talk with him,why should Barca plead with him when they have given him special treatment since he arrived,he got injured the whole season but was paid for doing nothing. He has a primitive talent, Barcelona should ship him off and recoup a bit of what they invested in him,he will never reach the levels of Mbappe or Arthur with that poor professional attitude. Barcelona has seen better sober talent 4 times better than him,he's just spreading his toxic attitude to the team.
PrinceSl
209
You earn almost or over 200,000 Euros a week and still go to work late? I earn less than that in a year and i never go late. Sometimes people don't appreciate what they have, he think talent alone is enough? No one in football world today have the talent of Ronaldinho but due to bad lifestyle you wouldn't put him along the greatest of all times even though he had a good career. Dembele you have Messi in your team, you once played with Iniesta, you should learn from them. Stop being a spoilt brat.
Bobraper
191
The wind has changed cules, the appearance of our new God, Vinicius I the Conqueror with his goal to Valladolid has injected adrenaline in the Real Madrid that returns to believe in his team and in the Flor de Solari, we will win this League and possibly the 14th, it is impossible to deny the fate, the farce is a queue that has been entrusted to put 5 to a team of shrouds delivered, now comes the great inflection point, in March plummeted cough and painful elimination against any team middle level athletic dortmund type napoles or something like that, and the league the tirais, white doublet with Vini and Benzedios of pichichi jajajajaja
SGM17
105
Well people will say the media are disturbing the kid... How can everyone simply decide to gang up against one person. There is truth in what they say about him and his career will be hampered if he doesn't make the necessary changes... Ronaldo is the person he is today simply because he was the most disciplined and hardworking of every bunch he found himself in... Vidal wasnt a starter when he came even though he was an established name before coming and yet he worked his way and he is now getting some minutes. He has people to emulate and should do so for his own good...
viscdir
84
dembele dembele dembele.... am really sure pogba is mentoring these kid on a very wrong path.... but in case he don't know pogba is like a king in Manchester not because he is too good or something it's because of the lack of competition in the Manchester United squad... I mean why won't he feel so arrogant to the boss and his team mates and the fans at large... but dembele should never mistake Barcelona for Manchester United because these club has not only the best plays in the world but also because it has a rich history on a great trend of hard working, dedicated, discipline players at there disposal... so if dembele choose these horrible path to follow am very sure he will end up his youthfull career playing for black pool or Oxford United in the lower leagues at London