The 18-year-old has attracted the attention of the world’s biggest clubs, smashed Ligue 1 records and Mikaël Silvestre thinks he can win the Ballon d’Or. His feet, however, remain firmly on the ground

Ousmane Dembélé may be the most coveted 18‑year‑old in world football but, if Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Manchester City are serious about prising him away from Rennes this summer, then there is one person they must convince: his mother Fatimata.

“She is who will decide Ousmane’s future,” admits Dembélé’s agent Badou Sambagué. “When he wanted to leave last summer, his mother told him she wanted him to stay at Rennes and sign his first professional contract. In the end he had no choice.”

Last Friday Dembélé scored his 10th league goal of a remarkable debut season as Rennes thrashed Marseille 5-2 at the Stade Vélodrome to keep their unlikely push for Champions League qualification alive. That made him the youngest player in the history of Ligue 1 to reach that mark – quicker than both Thierry Henry and Anthony Martial – although it was the assist for his side’s final goal that really marked the teenager out as something special.

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Chasing a speculative long ball with the game still in the balance, he glided past Marseille’s Nicolas N’Koulou before the experienced Cameroon defender was left on his backside as Dembélé cut inside. A perfectly weighted pass then landed at the feet of his strike partner, Giovanni Sio, to put the seal on a remarkable victory for Rolland Courbis’s side. The watching scouts, from a list of clubs long enough to form their own breakaway European Super League, could not have failed to be impressed.

Arsenal, Chelsea, City and Tottenham are among his suitors in the Premier League but reports in France on Monday claimed that Bayern have already secured a deal under which Dembélé would be loaned back to Rennes next season. Sambagué, a former Mali international who was a semi-professional player in France’s lower leagues and grew up in the same block of flats as Dembélé in the Normandy town of Évreux, says no agreement has been reached. However, with rumours that the bidding will start at around £25m, he knows keeping his young prodigy’s feet on the ground will not be an easy task.

“It’s very important for him to only think about playing football. My job is to protect him from all the speculation,” he says. “I’ve known Ousmane since he was born – I lived on the first floor of our immeuble and his family was on the second. I went to school with his brother and sister so we know each other very well. I was the model for a lot of the young footballers in the area because I had played international football for Mali. My example was to play football and then study so I became a lawyer after retiring. That’s when Ousmane said, ‘Badou I want you to give me a target for the future’.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dembélé has attracted plenty of attention since being called up by France under-21s this month. He is expected to make his debut against Scotland on Thursday. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images

Sambagué adds: “There are plenty of good and bad examples for him to follow. I always explain to him that he has an opportunity to become a good example and make a good choice. It’s very important for a young player to have a good mentality to strive to maintain their best performances game after game.”

Despite being restricted to only a handful of appearances for Rennes’ second string last season, the offers still came flooding in. The Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg were ready to pay more than €2m to secure Dembélé’s services while Patrick Vieira, in his previous role as Manchester City’s football development executive, was a regular spectator at the club’s La Piverdière training ground.

But having promised Fatimata, whose family moved to France from Mauritania, that her son would sign a professional contract with the club he first joined as a 13-year-old, the decision to stay was already made.

“Ousmane had the choice between three or four clubs,” remembers Sambagué. “He said, ‘Badou, I’m not a professional player yet because I’m only training with the first team. I want to improve and how can I do that if I don’t play?’ But he had a good opportunity to gain some experience at a smaller club that know him well. If he had gone somewhere then, we may have had to wait for him to play games. At Rennes he has established himself in the team and now everyone can see what he can do. He has a dream to become a good player, step by step. It’s not to go to a big club and just be forgotten about.”

The patient approach has certainly paid dividends for Rennes – traditionally known as one of the most prolific producers of players in Ligue 1 – as Dembélé’s transfer value has rocketed since making his first-team debut in November. A brilliant hat-trick in the Breton derby against Nantes on 6 March was reportedly watched by Barcelona’s sporting director, Robert Fernández, leading to predictions in the Catalonian press that he would be the next Neymar. A few days later the former Manchester United defender Mikaël Silvestre, in his official capacity as chargé de missions (presidential adviser)at Rennes, did nothing to dampen expectations when comparing him to “a young Cristiano Ronaldo” and predicted Dembélé would one day appear on the Ballon d’Or shortlist.

“I’m not surprised by his progress – he has been ready for this stage for a long time,” says Sambagué. “I’ve been speaking to a lot of scouts and for the past three or four years they have known we have a very good player on our hands. But the most important thing is the mentality of the player. You can have all the quality in the world but, if you don’t want to improve, you will not get very far. The objective for Ousmane is to keep improving all the time.”

Dembélé was called up to France’s Under-21 side last week and is expected to make his debut against Scotland on Thursday. He was the centre of attention at Monday’s pre-match press conference, denying the Bayern rumours and insisting he will not allow them “to go to his head”.

Yet Rennes, having felt short-changed from the sale of their last big discovery Yann M’Vila – now on loan at Sunderland from the Russians Rubin Kazan – for just €12m in 2013, appear ready to cash in this time – as long as Fatimata approves, that is.