From UPSL to Real Madrid: A Conversation with Yan Diomande’s Academy Director Todd Eason | OneFootball

Providing insight into Yan Diomande’s ascent from budding talent to bonafide superstar is Todd Eason, who oversaw the Ivorian winger’s growth as director of the DME Academy in Daytona, Florida.

You’d be hard-pressed to find many American states that have produced as much athletic talent as Florida. The Sunshine State is responsible for some of the greatest players in the NFL, MLB, and NBA, so much so that it’s difficult to say who is the best Floridian to play in each respective league.

But as far as the best soccer player to emerge from Florida? That would be Yan Diomande, a 19-year-old Ivorian winger who was perhaps the breakout star of the 2026 World Cup.

Born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Diomande was raised in the Sicogi neighborhood and learned to make sacrifices early on. As he described in his heartbreaking letter to his late sister in The Players’ Tribune, he shared a roof with 25 others as a child, and when he joined a youth academy 70 miles from his home at 9 years old, he and his teammates would steal potatoes from the village store to keep themselves from going hungry.

When he was 15, Diomande booked a solo, one-way flight to Florida and started a new journey at DME Academy.

Despite battling homesickness and only speaking French, Diomande quickly emerged as a key figure for not just the DME Academy, but DME’s affiliate team AS Frenzi, which played in the UPSL. It was here in the semi-professional ranks where Diomande made his mark on the national level, taking home the Golden Boot and MVP in the 2023 UPSL playoffs after scoring in all six matches.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by United Premier Soccer League (@upslsoccer)

During his time at DME, Diomande was under the watchful eye of Todd Eason, who was the academy’s director of soccer before becoming its director of athletics in January 2024.

“My relationship with Dio is strong because of the guidance I gave him as maybe a parent figure,” said Eason in an exclusive Urban Pitch interview. “I’ve always stayed on him to basically stay grounded in things, and to also be aware of outside distractions that could take him away from his focus of the game. I think I do try to spend a lot of time just grounding him, and not getting him too excited about all the money, and all the attention, and the celebrities that are around him.”

After winning the 2023 STARI Player of the Year and being named by Top Drawer Soccer as one of the 23 Male Players who Dominated in 2023, all signs pointed to Diomande quickly earning a professional contract. But despite trialing with various MLS clubs as well as European sides like Chelsea, Bournemouth, Rangers, Crystal Palace, and Olympiacos, he wasn’t able to secure a deal.

With no contract in sight, Diomande returned to Abidjan after his Form I-20, or Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status, expired. However, it proved to be darkest before the dawn, with Diomande signing with Spanish club Leganés on November 27, 2024.

Just a few days later, Eason started work as a sports business development consultant with USL Championship side Miami FC, before becoming the club’s general manager, his current position.

With Leganés, Diomande ascended from the reserves to the first team, making his debut in March 2025 and bagging his first goal a few weeks later. While he wasn’t able to keep the Pepineros afloat in La Liga, his 10 first team appearances were enough for Bundesliga side RB Leipzig to pay his €20 million release clause and sign him to a five-year contract.

Diomande quickly justified his price tag, scoring on his debut before getting his first call-up to the Ivory Coast senior national team in October and scoring in his first two matches against Seychelles and Kenya.

After edging Gabon to automatic World Cup qualification by just a point, Diomande continued to showcase his potential with Leipzig, racking up goals and becoming the second-youngest player in Bundesliga history to score a hat trick in a virtuosic performance against Eintracht Frankfurt.

As the season progressed, Diomande started to elevate himself from a promising wunderkind to one of the best players in the league. With 12 goals and nine assists in 33 league appearances, it was no surprise to see Diomande take home the Bundesliga Rookie of the Season and VDV Bundesliga Newcomer of the Season awards.

He proved to be a transformational signing for Leipzig, who finished third behind Bayern and Dortmund, a massive rebound from a disappointing seventh-place finish the season before.

Diomande led the Bundesliga with 3.6 successful dribbles per game (60% completion rate), nearly twice as many as second-placed Antonio Nusa, while only Karim Adeyemi (36.6 km/h) was tracked at a higher speed than him (36.5).

But while he established himself as a force in Germany, it was at the 2026 FIFA World Cup where he’d break out onto the global stage. Diomande’s return to North America was triumphant, winning man of the match honors in Ivory Coast’s group stage win over Ecuador, and assisting Nicolas Pépé’s opening goal against Curaçao in a victory that secured the Ivorians’ first-ever World Cup knockout fixture.

He finished the tournament with four big chances created, trailing only Lionel Messi (8), Michael Olise (7), and Ousmane Demebélé (5). His performances caught the eyes of Real Madrid, who dropped an initial €125 million fee for the young winger, with a potential of an additional €15 million in bonuses. Should Diomande achieve all of said bonuses, he would become the fourth-most expensive transfer in soccer history after Neymar Jr., Mbappé, and Alexander Isak.

“I think that should excite the Madrid fans: they’re taking a player who’s somewhat unknown, but an extremely exciting player,” said Eason to R.Org. “They should be very optimistic about what that front three’s going to do this year.”

He’s already gone from high school soccer in Florida to the World Cup in less than two years, but now, can Diomande beat out Arda Güler and Brahim Díaz for a starting spot in Real Madrid’s attack alongside the likes of Mbappé, Jude Bellingham, and Vinícius Júnior? Eason certainly thinks so.

We caught up with Diomande’s former academy director to discuss his growth as a player, and his blindingly bright future.

Urban Pitch: It’s been a messy transfer saga for Diomande, with his former agent Max Gradel filing a complaint with FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport for illegal breach of contract, unpaid representation fees, and entitlement to commission on his next transfer. How much has this off-the-field drama impacted him?

Todd Eason: That’s one thing I’m pretty aware of. Some of that stuff that’s going on, and that’s why Dio and I still stay in touch, because I just always want to check on him and make sure he’s smiling and that he’s happy. I definitely have sensed that there is a lot that is on him that he’s dealing with. But I think with the new agency, Roc Nation, I’ve gotten to meet a couple of his representatives, and they have really put a shadow over him and protected him from a lot of things.

I’m happy to see that there is a gentleman that’s always with him and that manages a lot of these things. I think he also manages things coming in on his phone, and he’s reviewing those so that Dio can really just kind of focus on himself and get away from the social media. I do think it’s probably better now than it was when he was at Leganés and Leipzig. I think there was a lot of distraction out there.

These kinds of things just create even bigger distractions for him, because everybody is sharing stories, and now, you’re going to end up seeing all the trolls and the haters that are gonna start throwing out negativity towards them. It’s a lot, but I think he has a good management team now that kind of shelters him and guards him from that, which he probably didn’t have before.

But, yeah, there’s a lot that’s going on that I wouldn’t be able to handle. That’s what, again, has shown his maturity and intelligence. That’s kind of his big protector, the characteristics that he already had, but I think his management team at Roc Nation is doing a better job of shielding him from a lot of these distractions.

Where do you think Diomande is better suited: the right side of attack, or the left?

What’s so special about him is that he can do it on both sides. On the left side, it seems like he wants to kind of stay there or put the ball on his right foot and slot a guy in inside the 18-yard box. But he can do it with both feet: he can do it with the control of the ball, and he’s just so dynamic in every way that it’s hard for defenders to understand how to mark him. You can look at all these others, like, “Oh, he’s right-footed, he’s gonna keep it on his right,” but Diomande just realizes what window he has, and then he’ll use the foot he needs to exploit that space. So, it’s very hard to defend him because of that.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Madrid Zone (@themadridzone_)

Lastly, how are you expecting him to fare at Real Madrid?

He’s doing a great job right now, and I think as long as he can continue to remember to stay grounded, he’ll adapt fine. He’s not going to surpass Vinícius or Mbappé as far as the exposure and their notoriety, he’s going to be the third one coming in and saying, “Can I be a part of this group? Can I be cool like you guys?”

As long as he’s playing with those kind of guys, it’s going to be great that he doesn’t perceive himself as the best player, and then he can still stay focused on trying to be the best player he can be. I think he’s got the maturity: since he left me two years ago, he’s shown every time that he’s doing the right thing outside of the game to keep the longevity of his career. So, I think he’ll adapt fine.