Ousmane Dembele says Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is his favourite person in football, based on their time together at Borussia Dortmund.

LEGANES, SPAIN - SEPTEMBER 26: Ousmane Dembele of FC Barcelona reacts during the La Liga match between CD Leganes and FC Barcelona at Estadio Municipal de Butarque on September 26, 2018 in Leganes, Spain. (Photo by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)
LEGANES, SPAIN: Ousmane Dembele of FC Barcelona reacts during the La Liga match between CD Leganes and FC Barcelona at Estadio Municipal de Butarque on September 26, 2018. (Photo by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)

Despite his yearly links to Arsenal, Ousmane Dembele is still playing his football in Barcelona, and he’s yet to reunite with former Borussia Dortmund teammate Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

According to the 23-year-old, however, Aubameyang was one of the big positives of their time together in Germany.

“Things went super at Dortmund, a super squad, (Pierre-Emerick) Aubameyang who welcomed me amazingly, even if it was quite tough with the German (language),” Dembele told beIN SPORTS (via GFFN).

“Aubameyang really welcomed me well, he is the person that I have liked the most in football.”

I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to suggest that Dembele’s departure from Dortmund was the first step towards Aubameyang joining Arsenal.

Aubameyang and Dembele were clearly close, and in a tweet from 2019 the striker suggested Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke had given him assurances his teammate would stay, before selling him once he saw how much money he could make.

The tone of the tweet was more than a little incendiary, with Aubameyang also calling Watzke a ‘clown’. So it was evidently not a popular decision with the striker, who left for Arsenal a few months later.

Dembele has a year left on his contract this summer, so expect another round of links to Arsenal when the window opens.