Emotional video
Leipzig star mourns – “I can’t see her anymore”
03/26/2026 – 02:01 amReading time: 2 minutes
RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande speaks openly about the death of his younger sister in a new video. A photo from his past shows what particularly moves the 19-year-old.
Yan Diomande is one of the big discoveries of this Bundesliga season. The 19-year-old moved to Leipzig from Spanish second division club CD Leganés in the summer and has been causing a stir ever since. In 26 league games he scored ten times and prepared seven goals. He became a national player for the Ivory Coast, which will also face Germany in the preliminary round of the World Cup in the summer. So far, the striker has played nine international matches and scored three goals.
Now RB Leipzig has dedicated a short film to the player’s life on YouTube. The approximately thirteen-minute video was apparently created in a gallery at the Leipzig cotton mill. Diomande walks through an exhibition with photos from his life – from the Ivory Coast to his breakthrough in the Bundesliga. He talks about his life story, including a particularly impactful experience: the death of his younger sister.
At the beginning of the video, Diomande can be seen in several pictures as a child in a red football jersey – he left his family early to play football in another village, says the professional. “The situation at home wasn’t good, so I decided to go away to play football.” There is a lot of passion for football in his home country, everyone plays on the street. Even back then, he couldn’t afford proper football boots; he got them paid for by a donor.
Finally, still very young, Diomande went alone to the USA to join a private sports academy in Florida and pursue his dream: becoming a professional footballer. He says in the video that he didn’t speak any English and learned using Duolingo alone.
In November 2024, Diomande then signed a contract with Spanish club CD Leganés and made his Primera División debut the following year. He stops in front of a picture of himself celebrating his first professional goal for the Spanish club. He celebrated this goal with tears in May 2025: because of the death of his younger sister. She died unexpectedly at the end of 2024 – shortly before Diomande signed his first professional contract. The winger’s voice breaks in the video when he thinks about it.
