EARLY on Sunday morning (IST), Ivory Coast and Yan Diomande will play their second game of the group stages. For a fair few of them, including Diomande, this would be one of the most important games of their careers.
Irrespective of whatever happens, the highly-rated and heavily-scouted RB Leipzig winger is one of the hottest properties in world football at the moment. Clubs up and down the top European leagues, including Liverpool, are taking an active interest in securing his signature. When he leaves — either before next season or later — he will likely become one of the most expensive African footballers of all time.
But the 19-year-old, who was electric against Ecuador in their first game, is fuelled by something more fundamental. The memory of his 15-year-old sister, the person who believed in his dreams the most when he was growing up in Abidjan, the capital city.
A few weeks after Diomande made his debut for Leganes in Spain's La Liga in 2025 — he incidentally made his debut against Real Madrid — he received a phone call that changed his life.
In one of the most emotional posts ever on The Players' Tribune, a website for athletes, Diomande wrote about the death of his little sister. "I don't even think I shed a tear the day they told that you were gone," he wrote on Wednesday. "I was just in shock."
"'Your sister is gone,' he remembers the message. 'What?' 'She died.' 'What are you talking about?' 'Somebody put something in her drink at a party, and she never woke up. She is gone.'"
His sister, Roxane, was the one who had given wings to his dreams, belief to his prayers. Diomande even remembers a time when Roxane was with him after all European clubs had looked at him but decided against signing him. "Remember when they took me on trial at Bournemouth," the post, addressed to Roxane, asks. "At Chelsea, Rangers, Olympiacos, Crystal Palace? Eze (England player Eberechi Eze) and Olise (French international Michael Olise; both of whom are at the World Cup) even came up to me after one training and said, "'Yo kid, you are really good.' But they still didn't sign me."
When all clubs, including MLS teams in the US, rejected the opportunity, he was ready to give up. "The adults handled everything," he writes. "They just kept taking me all around Europe, and everybody saying no. My visa was up. My dream was over. They sent me back to Africa, and we cried together. You were the one who never stopped believing. A few weeks later, I signed for Leganes and we cried different tears."
He very quickly established his presence on the wing before scoring his first goal for the club against Espanyol. His pace, trickery and direct dribbling ability combined with his physicality — the ideal profile for young players — meant other clubs revisited the file marked 'Diomande'. Just after Leganes' relegation post the 2024-25 season, Leipzig took the chance and signed him for just over $20mn (former Liverpool boss, Jurgen Klopp, in an advisory role, may have played a role in the transfer).
Over the last 12 months, he has grown from strength to strength in the Bundesliga, his capacity to thrill making him stand out in a league dominated by Bayern and their players. The 19-year-old, in a side filled with new talents, took his time to get going, but once he settled into his new environment, full-backs couldn't live with him. He either cut inside or took his man on the outside. His play started making the Bundesliga highlight packages as well as attracting the attention of Premier League scouts. Ivory Coast, who have a rich history of attackers right from Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure, also capped him.
In front of a global audience against Ecuador in their first game at the World Cup, he was direct and made life difficult for Piero Hincapie, a Premier League winner for Arsenal. Against Germany, who have a propensity to be open at the back, the teen will like his chances of making a statement. `
His football-mad country will hope he can do that. But he himself says he doesn't feel anything these days. "Now," he writes, "I don't feel anything. It's like I'm not even human. Since you died, I'm just blank."
On the field, though, he transforms into an athlete capable of being and beating the best. At this World Cup and going forward, he wants to tell the world that his sister was right. "You always said I could be better than Cristiano (he's a huge fan of Ronaldo and wore replica jerseys of the Portuguese with CR7 on his back). If I see him there, I will tell him 'hello' for you. I'm going to do what you predicted, I swear. Before I even had real boots, you were telling everybody, 'my brother is going to be greatest in the world.'
"I will prove that you were right, or I will die trying."
Note: This is the link to The Players' Tribune piece where Diomande has poured his heart out.
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/yan-diomande-soccer-bundesliga-rb-leipzig-ivory-coast
