sport news Karamoko Dembele was dubbed the 'next Lionel Messi' aged just THIRTEEN but is ... trends now
Karamoko Dembele won a hat-trick of awards this week.
20 goal involvements during a successful loan at League One Blackpool saw the 21-year-old winger scoop the Players' Player, Supporters' Player and Junior Seasiders' Player of the Season gongs.
They might not be quite as illustrious as some expected for the boy dubbed 'the next Lionel Messi' when he was just 13.
But the prizes represented a positive step in the right direction for a talent dragged down by that ridiculously huge millstone around his neck.
Many prodigies have been compared to the great Argentine but winger Dembele did boast some similar attributes when he first emerged playing for Celtic's U20 team seven years ahead of schedule.
Karamoko Dembele was dubbed the 'next Lionel Messi' after he emerged at Celtic
The tiny boy wonder was playing against opponents several years older when he was just 13
Dembele, now 21, has started to get his career back on track with a successful Blackpool loan
Dembele has just won a trio of end-of-season awarded at the League One club
It seemed the sky was the limit for a teenager who was eligible to represent Scotland, England or the Ivory Coast internationally.
But his Celtic career fizzled out in disappointing fashion, leading to Dembele joining the mid-ranking French club Brest on a free in 2022.
Only in then dropping down to Blackpool - who are just below the play-offs in England's third tier - in recent months has some of the old magic been rekindled.
Dembele is still young and all the old 'Messi' hype has long since evaporated, so it remains to be seen what heights he could yet reach.
An Under-20 fixture between Celtic and Hearts wouldn't usually make too many waves, but the October 2016 encounter garnered global headlines when 13-year-old Dembele came on late on.
The match report on the official Celtic website stated simply that 'the diminutive playmaker didn't look out of place and played his part in the closing stages.'
But rumours about the generational talents of the London-born kid had already started to circulate, supercharged by YouTube clips and social media.
" class="c7" scrolling="no"
A diminutive Dembele is action for England under-15s against Turkey in December 2016
The teenager's small stature is clear to see as he plays for Scotland under-16s in 2016
He beat aspiring stars from the academies of Barcelona, Lyon and Deportivo La Coruna to win Player of the Tournament at the prestigious St Kevin's Boys Academy Cup in Dublin.
One clip showed Dembele leaving the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Xavi Simons - now a Netherlands international - for dead in one game.
Dembele was also named the best player as Celtic won the Bassevelde Cup for under-13s in Belgium, beating Borussia Dortmund in the final.
It was at this point David Feeney, his former coach at Park Villa Boys Club in Glasgow - where Dembele's family relocated from Lambeth, South London before his first birthday - went on record.
'I think he is very similar to Lionel Messi. If he has the right guidance, then the sky is the limit for him,' Feeney said.
Things quickly snowballed with media reports linking Dembele to Barcelona, Real Madrid and PSG.
Insanely, one bookmaker offered odds on
