🐣 This week’s rising star: Yan Diomandé 🇨🇮 | OneFootball

Every week, OneFootball introduces you to the latest rising stars in world football. Today, we’re focusing on a major talent who could shine during this AFCON and delight all the fans.

The African continent is a major producer of talent. The latest is currently making waves in Germany, at Leipzig, a club renowned for its ability to develop young prospects. 

At just 19 years old, Yan Diomandé is thriving across the Rhine, with already 7 goals and 4 assists in 16 matches (all competitions combined). Impressive stats, especially considering that the young winger only played his first professional matches a few months ago.

Born in Abidjan, Diomandé grew up in the United States, where he started playing football. Spotted in high school, he joined the DME Academy in Florida, a private academy, and caught the eye of several professional clubs. 

Without passing through any youth academy, he landed in La Liga, at Leganes, at the start of 2025. And like all great prodigies, things moved very quickly. He joined the first team after just two months, and made his professional debut at the end of March 2025, against Real Madrid, no less. 

No problem for this fast winger (1.80m), explosive, a good dribbler and very skilled in front of goal, who became a starter after just three matches and finished the season with 2 goals and 1 assist in 10 matches. 

However, it wasn’t enough to prevent his club’s relegation, but Diomandé’s talent had already caught the eye of many European clubs.

Leipzig snapped him up for 20 million euros, after only 10 professional matches.

The German club quickly made him a key asset in their attack, and the young prodigy delivered immediately, quickly establishing himself as one of the most dangerous players in the Bundesliga. In fact, at the beginning of December against Frankfurt, he became the youngest player to score a hat-trick in the Bundesliga since 1965.

These performances have already seen his value rise to 100 million euros and earned him his first caps for the national team last October.

With 2 goals in 4 appearances, further proof of his talent and his remarkable ability to adapt at every level, Diomandé is already heading into AFCON as a starter for the Ivorian Elephants, and is already establishing himself as a key player in their title defense, which begins this Wednesday against Mozambique.

A very special talent and a strong contender for the revelation of AFCON! 

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.

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