Sunderland held talks over Yan Diomande before Leipzig move after £17 million clause stance | OneFootball

“That’s right. During negotiations with Leipzig, things also became very concrete with Sunderland. However, they didn’t want to trigger the release clause.”

Agent Wolfgang Meier said this in an interview with Sky Sports.

The 19-year-old joined Leipzig from Leganes last summer after the club triggered his €20 million clause, about £17 million. His pace and dribbling have drawn praise from Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann.

“Many other clubs who could have paid the €20 million said they found the player very interesting, but a transfer was too risky due to his limited playing time. Of the big Bundesliga clubs, only Borussia Dortmund showed interest in him.”

“I prefer to work on transfers behind the scenes. No information leaked until the day before Yan signed. Only on the last day did clubs like VfL Wolfsburg and Sporting suddenly want to jump in.”

The claim offers an insight into Sunderland’s approach under Florent Ghisolfi, with Diomande fitting the brief as a high-upside forward, though the £17 million clause was a major outlay given his limited senior minutes.

Leipzig handed him a five-year deal, he scored in the DFB-Pokal against SV Sandhausen, then opened his Bundesliga account in a 6-0 win at Augsburg before a hat-trick in a 6-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt made him the second-youngest to do so in the league, behind Walter Bechtold in 1965.

Source: Sunderland Echo