Ten Minutes Fame : Celtic's Latest Young Star (13)- Karamoko Dembele .

Ten Minutes Fame : Celtic's Latest Young Star Karamoko Dembele.

By Ewah Chika.

Possessing the talent of a professional footballer can be a blessing and a curse at the same time for any individual. This is because you tend to live your dream life making every single move in football look simple and seamless (dribble, shot and pass) and at the same time having to cope with the pressures and demands of living in the spotlight.


A quick glance at such stars like Freddy Adu (D.C United), Phil Jones (Manchester United) and Francis Jeffers (Arsenal) will reveal youngsters who possessed  great talent yet did not fulfil their dreams. This is mainly due to certain factors like injuries, choosing the wrong club, excessive media hype and finally the player's lifestyle.

Karamoko Dembele is not just the latest young star in Celtic but the also the latest good news from the Scottish league in decades. The youngster is just 13 and didn't even have a twitter account before his ten minutes of fame last week. Dembele shot to fame after he was handed his debut for the Celtic U20's in the game with Hearts with eight players of the U20 having gone on international break and the U17 side having a game 24 hours after the U20 game.

Though it was shocking for football fans seeing the youngster dazzle after coming on, it wasn't the case with the coaching staff of Celtic who won the European U13 Competition with Dembele bagging the Player of the Tournament in the process . This is a tournament Celtic last won in 1998 (18 years ago), although they reached the final in 1999 with the likes of Aiden McGeady and Charlie Mulgrew who are all already in their 30s.

In the game, the youngster replaced Jack Aitchison (16-year-old and also Celtic's youngest ever player having made his senior team debut last year). What makes Dembele's case more puzzling is that he looked so seamlessly confident and capable even though he played with people more than five years ahead of him. The youngster can use both foot coupled with his accurate passing, vision and devastating pace.

"The diminutive playmaker didn't look out of place and played his part in the closing stages," were the words used by Celtic in their  website at the end of the U20 game.

For now it seems too early to predict how Dembele's career will turn out but one thing is for sure: "Karamoko Dembele has the talents to make it in professional football but that is not just enough as he must choose his lifestyle wisely."