Yan Diomande, who is the talent from the Ivory Coast that half of Europe likes

They included it in all those classic pieces that are done before a big competition to highlight the most promising young people. But in everyone, huh? It couldn’t be otherwise, because 2006 Yan Diomande, pure talent from the Ivory Coast, seems headed towards winning the title of ‘crack’. Before greeting him on his departure for the States, Leipzig, the team to which his card belongs, stuck a large label on him with an even larger price: 130 million euros.

MEGA PLUS VALUE

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Considering that the club managed by Jurgen Klopp took him not even a year ago from Leganes for 20 million, we are faced with a potential record capital gain. Also because the Ivorian has so far played 34 games as a starter in La Liga (including relegation) and Bundesliga. Plus another 9 from the bench. Two goals in Spain, 12 in Germany, with 7 assists. And the economic bang.

SAFE GERMANS

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Leipzig puts their hands forward because Red Bull are sure that this can be the World Cup for a boy born and raised in Yopougon, the metropolitan neighborhood of Abidjan, density like a Tokyo metro during rush hour, with a per capita salary that hardly exceeds 10 dollars a day. Ivory Coast makes its debut tomorrow in Philadelphia against Ecuador, a tough match: we’ll see. While waiting for confirmation of Diomande’s possible explosion, it is necessary to shed light on his brief but very intense past.

WITHOUT THE FATHER

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The guide we have chosen is a wonderful interview given by the Ivorian boy to the French magazine So Foot: “I grew up in the midst of a large family, with many cousins who were like brothers and sisters to me. I only had one ‘real’ sister, who died. And so now I am my mother’s only child. We were a middle class family, rather modest. Neither rich nor poor, let’s say we had the basics, the minimum. My mother didn’t work. I don’t know what my father did, I have no ties to him. we lived in the same country, he was and is in France.”

THE ACADEMY

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In Yopougon, football is still played on the streets, sharing the ball, the dust and a dream: to enter a training center to grow, save money for the family and open doors to Europe. Because this, after decades of programs and words without actions, is still and always the big problem of African football: talents must come to us to make their way. “I must have been 10-11 years old when I went to the Académie Inter Foot Sud Comoé in Aboisso”, a hundred kilometers from Abidjan. “It didn’t have a great reputation, but it was something. Once you get in they take care of everything. The best thing for me and my family. I wasn’t sad, I just wanted to play football and that’s what I did.”

FLORIDA

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When he was 15, Diomande moved from Yopougon to Daytona Beach, Florida. “They made me sign a contract with Leganes, but I couldn’t go there until I was 18, so, I don’t know why, they sent me to the United States. I didn’t have much choice, I wasn’t aware of anything, I couldn’t make decisions, I was little. They told me to go and I went. Alone. I didn’t speak English, obviously, but I didn’t pay anything and I did everything like at home, living inside the Academy, much better than having an apartment to clean, having to cook… There were other Ivorians there, and other Africans. Even among Americans there are several blacks, but it is very different to be a black American, a black European and a black African. It is not the same culture, the same way of thinking, of seeing things.”

THE PILGRIMAGE

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A year in America, then the round of trials: Glasgow Rangers, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Olympiacos, Chelsea where Yan also met the manager at the time, Pochettino. But something always goes wrong. So the boy takes the initiative: he leaves his agent, calls the president of Leganes and since he is approaching 18 he leaves for Madrid. He sleeps in the cantera headquarters because they pay him very little and he prefers to send as much as possible home. The debut in La Liga arrives, against Real Madrid. Diomandé exchanges shirts with Mbappé, but the season ends with relegation.

THE SIZE

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Yan wants to leave. Leganes pay him a pittance (“I prefer not to say it, but it was truly ridiculous”) but place a 20 million euro bounty on his head. “Even though I had played 10 games. They obviously believed in me, but you can’t ask for a similar amount for a boy to whom you are paying a miserable salary that didn’t change even when I started playing in La Liga and doing well. I argued with the coach, I asked for a raise, they didn’t give it to me. I never felt respected. Fortunately, Leipzig decided to take the risk.”

JURGEN’S ADVICE

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Diomande arrived in Germany and demonstrated all his great potential, after some disciplinary problems related to punctuality: “No, I don’t speak German, it’s not worth it, it’s too complicated. There are several French speakers and everyone speaks English”. Diomandé often sees Jurgen Klopp: “He gives me excellent advice.” Diomandé plays on the right for Lispia and on the left for the national team: “The position I prefer, the one I love. I don’t like it on the right, but I play it.” He uses both feet, like Dembélé.

THE JOURNEY

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And he bought his mother a nice house, moving her from Yopougon. Putting it in Cocody, ‘the Beverly Hills’ of Abidjan. No, she didn’t want to go to Germany with her son: the roots are too deep and Yan can manage very well on his own. He’s 19 and about to turn 10 away from home. Waiting for someone to pay 130 million euros to Leipzig to let him continue his tour: Abdijan, Aboisso, Daytona, Madrid, Lispia. The World Cup will plan the next stage of this journey that is as difficult as it is wonderful.