Just three years ago, Yan Diomande was playing in the fourth tier of amateur soccer in the United States. Fast forward to today, and the 19-year-old talent has a staggering €100 million valuation, catching the keen eyes of top clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United, and Bayern Munich.

Diomande has rapidly become one of the most sought-after players globally, poised to make a significant impact as he heads back to the U.S. this summer. At just 15 years old, he first made waves there, and now he aims to be a standout performer for his country in the upcoming World Cup.

Those who discovered and nurtured the once-timid Ivorian into a Bundesliga sensation, and a potential heir to Mohamed Salah at Liverpool, consistently highlight one trait: his unwavering determination.

Growing up in the Sicogi neighborhood of Abidjan, Diomande faced financial hardships that meant he couldn’t even afford soccer boots. With his mother grappling with health issues and his father absent, his early life was far from easy.

When he decided to leave home to chase his dreams at an academy, his shyness was so profound that he couldn’t bring himself to participate in the customary initiation rituals of singing or dancing. Despite these challenges, Diomande was determined to break into the professional soccer scene—not just domestically, but with one of the world’s elite clubs.

Yan Diomande is one of the world’s most in-demand players heading into a summer where he will return to the United States looking to play a starring role for his country at the World Cup

If you speak to those who scouted, moulded and developed a shy young Ivorian into a Bundesliga record-breaker, one attribute shines through

His breakthrough came during the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations, a tournament bustling with scouts, where his skills on the field drew attention and ultimately led him to the sunny fields of Florida.

‘We felt like this was a player that we needed to bring over,’ explains Eason, then director of the DME Academy, a private institution based in Daytona Beach. ‘There were a lot of people already looking at him. But I think it was our approach to get him out of Africa so that he could get even greater exposure with European clubs (that persuaded him to join). We were lucky to have him.’

Diomande, then only 15, made the move alone from Abidjan to Florida despite not speaking a word of English (he would later pick it up through Duolingo). And the roadblocks kept coming. In his first game for DME, Diomande became a target for opponents who wanted to rough him up. He was sent off for retaliating, unable to control his emotions.

‘Adjusting to the game here was tough, because he ended up being a target and a lot of the teams we played just went after him,’ Eason adds. ‘He would always retaliate and didn’t understand how to control his emotions. He was kind of reckless at first and then settled down.’

The tricky winger soon realised he wasn’t going to get the fouls he thought he deserved. He had to toughen up quick.

‘That was one of the things we changed from day one,’ says Eason. ‘When he would get barely touched, he would flop and fall down and whine and cry and I just never had patience for it.

‘He saw that and just stopped doing it. There had been plenty of times he got knocked down early on and would stay on the ground whining, but I just wouldn’t tolerate it. He knew that and he wasn’t getting calls anyway, so he changed that and said, “I can’t get away with this – let’s move on to the next thing”.

‘That’s one thing he learned here, that sometimes life can be unfair. And he’s OK with that.’

The tricky winger soon realised in Florida that he wasn’t going to get the fouls he thought he deserved. He had to toughen up quick

He has become one of the most dangerous wingers in the Bundesliga for RB Leipzig

Diomande was quick, unselfish, an elite finisher, quiet off the pitch but finding a swagger on it. And no matter the difficulty of DME’s opponents, he was always the best player on the pitch.

En route to an undefeated season in 2022 where Diomande was the best player, Eason organised games against professional teams purely to see how the youngster would fare in sink-or-swim situations.

Diomande’s name was well known in the high school circuit by this point and Eason needed another level to test him at, this time loaning him to DME’s affiliate side, fourth-tier AS Frenzi. It became immediately apparent that this 16-year-old was a cut above.

‘We had everybody else try to facilitate him,’ team owner Wayne Dorman tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘You’ve got to feed him the ball and we learned that from when we had him. Just give him the ball.

‘Later on in the season, he was playing pros and he would get like three or four guys on him because they knew who he was.’

Diomande was the name on everybody’s lips. By the time he first went viral, generating more than 1.5million views after ‘assisting’ himself by playing a pass through the lines, racing on to it to then rounding the goalkeeper to score in a 7-1 win over Tennessee Tempo in July, 2023, kids had long started lining up for Diomande’s autograph.

‘We didn’t know he was so popular!’ says Dorman. ‘All the kids came up to the guy and he was just cool about it. He was like, “Yeah, I’ll take a picture”. He didn’t have a problem. When I saw the aura he had in that moment, I felt he could one day be a leader for his country.

‘Football will get him to a point where he’ll be at the top of the list, No 1. But once that’s over, I think there’s still a lot more for this guy to achieve in life.’

 Diomande went viral in July 2023 after scoring a remarkable goal against Tennessee Tempo

‘You’ve got to feed him the ball – just give him the ball,’ says Wayne Dorman of Diomande’s former club AS Frenzi

The Frenzi secondment had been an overwhelming success. He was named STARI Player of the Year – picked out from over 5,000 players – and trial offers flooded in.

Bournemouth, Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Rangers were all immediately keen. Multiple MLS clubs had a look but decided against offering terms, to the surprise of Eason.

A move to Rangers was foiled due to agent demands, while the player chose La Liga side Leganes over Chelsea due to concerns over his playing time in England, despite not speaking any Spanish and having to navigate the emotions around the sudden passing of his sister.

By now he was extremely resilient, not to mention a fast learner. Just a month after joining Leganes’ reserve team, with Duolingo back in overdrive, he made his professional debut away to Real Madrid and never looked back, pitching up at RB Leipzig within six months in a £17.5m move.

Diomande wasted no time in becoming a star in Germany, with his treble in a 6-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt last December making him the second-youngest player in Bundesliga history to score a hat-trick.

What both Eason and Dorman did express during our chats was concerns about those helping Diomande navigate his career.

It was Maxidel Management that took him from Leganes to RB Leipzig but earlier this year, Roc Nation announced they were representing him. That was followed up by Maxidel Management insisting it is they who continue to manage the young Ivorian, a complicated situation which needs a resolution ahead of a potentially lucrative summer window.

Liverpool are seeking a quick, versatile forward as part of their post-Salah rebuild, while United are keen on adding a left-sided player as they pivot back to a system that relies on wing play. Liverpool feel their strong relationship with the Red Bull group, who are still determined to convince Diomande to sign a bumper new deal, gives them the edge.

Liverpool are seeking a quick, versatile forward as part of the post-Mohamed Salah (centre) rebuild, while Manchester United are keen on adding a left-sided player

Diomande went on trial at Rangers in 2023 and played in a friendly match for their B team against Monaco, but a move fell through due to agent demands

Diomande’s price tag could still sky-rocket this summer if he stars for Ivory Coast at the World Cup

And whoever does secure his services may need to get in quick before the World Cup. Diomande has three goals in his first nine caps for the Ivory Coast, and will look to showcase his talents this summer against Germany, Ecuador and Curacao in Group E. Play a starring role in leading the Elephants to the knockout stages for the first time and that €100m (£87.3m) price tag will sky-rocket.

But Dorman has a word of warning for any of his summer suitors. ‘He can’t just be a guy,’ he explains. ‘Liverpool have got a lot of talented players. But you can’t make Yan be the third option. Leipzig use him right now where he’s the first option and if he’s not scoring, he’s creating. They use him correctly.’

Eason, a father figure who still calls Diomande once a month to ‘keep him grounded’, is adamant that the best is yet to come from the 19-year-old.

‘I don’t know what his true level is, what his true ceiling is, and that’s what’s so exciting – he always steps up to the level and goes beyond it,’ he says. 

‘There hasn’t been a level so far that I’ve seen where he is just an average player for the league. He just keeps excelling. That’s the scary thing about this kid – we still don’t know what his potential is.’