There are moments in football when a player stops being a promising signing and becomes a name that supporters remember. For Moussa Dembele, that moment arrived on a September afternoon at Celtic Park in 2016, when a 20-year-old French striker walked into his first Old Firm derby and walked out having scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 victory.
Dembele had only joined Celtic from Fulham that summer, arriving with a growing reputation but without the certainty that comes with being an established star. Brendan Rodgers had brought him to Glasgow as part of the rebuild that followed his appointment as Celtic manager, and although there was excitement around the young forward, there was still plenty for him to prove. Scottish football was different from the Championship, Celtic were under pressure to win every week and the Old Firm was a completely different proposition altogether.
The circumstances of his introduction to the fixture were significant. Leigh Griffiths, Celtic’s established striker and one of the leading goalscorers in Scotland, was unavailable, leaving Dembele to lead the line against Rangers in the first league meeting between the clubs since Rangers’ return to the top flight.
It was an occasion that required no explanation to anyone inside Celtic Park.
The stadium was packed, the atmosphere was ferocious and the sense of anticipation had been building for months. Rangers had returned to the Premiership and, under Mark Warburton, were attempting to establish themselves as Celtic’s principal domestic challenger once again. The previous meeting between the sides had ended in one of the most extraordinary Scottish Cup semi-finals of recent times, with Rangers eliminating Celtic on penalties at Hampden.
Now the rivalry had returned to the league.
Celtic, however, were determined to make the difference in quality immediately apparent.
Rodgers’ side began aggressively, moving the ball quickly and forcing Rangers backwards, although it took more than half an hour for the pressure to finally produce a breakthrough. When it came, the scorer was the young striker wearing the number nine shirt.
Scott Sinclair delivered a corner into the Rangers penalty area and Dembele attacked it with remarkable conviction, rising above the defence to send a powerful header beyond Wes Foderingham. The goal was his first in an Old Firm derby and gave Celtic the advantage, but the manner in which he scored it offered an early glimpse of what Rodgers had seen in him.
Dembele was not simply a striker who wanted the ball at his feet. He possessed the physical presence to compete in the air, the acceleration to threaten defenders in behind and the composure to finish when opportunities arrived.
His second goal demonstrated the latter qualities.
With Celtic continuing to control the game, Dembele received the ball in an attacking position and drove towards the Rangers defence. Philippe Senderos, the experienced former Arsenal defender, attempted to contain him, but Dembele’s movement created the space he needed. He shifted inside before guiding a precise right-footed finish beyond Foderingham and into the far corner.
The young Frenchman had scored twice before half-time.
For Rangers, it was a damaging afternoon. For Celtic, it was beginning to look like something much more significant.
Yet the visitors managed to give themselves a route back into the contest before the interval when Joe Garner got on the end of a dangerous delivery and reduced the deficit. Celtic had dominated much of the opening period, but at 2-1 the match remained alive.
The response after the break was emphatic.
Celtic continued to attack, and Dembele was involved again, this time providing rather than finishing. His involvement helped create the opportunity for Scott Sinclair, who produced a composed finish to restore Celtic’s two-goal advantage.
Then came another decisive moment. Senderos, already booked, was shown a second yellow card after handling the ball, leaving Rangers with ten men and Celtic with increasing control of the match.
By this point, Dembele was running the show.
The final piece of his afternoon arrived with seven minutes remaining.
Mikael Lustig delivered a dangerous cross from the right and Dembele found himself in the perfect position. Rather than attempting to overpower the goalkeeper, he took a controlled touch before placing the ball into the far corner with his left foot.
The hat-trick was complete.
There was something particularly fitting about the way the three goals arrived. The first had come with his head, the second with his right foot and the third with his left. It was the perfect hat-trick, but more importantly it was a demonstration of the variety that would become such an important part of Dembele’s game.
He could score in the air, finish from inside the box, create his own opportunities and use either foot. Against Rangers, in his first league derby, all of those qualities appeared within the space of a single afternoon.
Stuart Armstrong added a fifth goal late on to complete a result that immediately became one of the defining moments of the early Rodgers era.
For Dembele, however, the significance was personal as much as professional. This was his first experience of the Old Firm and, almost immediately, he understood why the fixture occupies such a unique place in Scottish football.
The reaction afterwards said everything.
Rodgers praised his striker’s physicality, movement and finishing, while Dembele spoke about an atmosphere unlike anything he had experienced previously. The occasion had introduced him not simply to Celtic supporters, but to the scale of expectation that comes with playing for one of Scotland’s biggest clubs.
There was another storyline running through the afternoon, too, with Rangers midfielder Joey Barton having spent much of the build-up talking about his own qualities and his anticipated battle with Celtic captain Scott Brown. In the end, the individual contest became something of a sideshow to a result that demonstrated the gulf between the teams at that point in their development.
Celtic were already building towards something extraordinary under Rodgers.
They had started the league campaign strongly, were negotiating the demands of European football and were assembling a squad capable of dominating domestically. The 5-1 victory over Rangers was therefore more than a memorable derby result. It was an early indication of the direction the season was taking.
Celtic would eventually finish the 2016/17 campaign unbeaten domestically, collecting the Premiership title, Scottish Cup and League Cup and completing what became known as the Invincible Treble.
Dembele would become one of the central figures in that campaign, scoring regularly and developing into one of the most feared forwards in Scottish football. His performances attracted attention far beyond Scotland and eventually earned him a move to Lyon, where his career continued at the highest level.
But the image that remains from that first Old Firm appearance is simpler.
A young French striker, barely three months into his Celtic career, standing in front of a packed Celtic Park after scoring three times against Rangers.
He had arrived in Glasgow as a highly rated prospect.
By the time he left the pitch, he was an Old Firm hero.
Some players need months or even years to establish themselves at a new club. Dembele needed ninety minutes.
