RB Leipzig winger Yan Diomande rejected an approach from Chelsea in 2024 and chose a different path that has since pushed him into the centre of Europe\u2019s transfer conversation. The winger had a trial with Chelsea when he was 17 while still registered at Florida\u2019s DME Academy, but he decided to pursue a route through Legan\u00e9s before moving on to Leipzig.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a difficult time,\u201d Diomande recalled to BILD . \u201cI felt like for many people it was always just about money.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany told me I absolutely had to play for Chelsea. Then I stopped everything and made a decision for myself. I knew the president of Legan\u00e9s; he had helped with my move to the USA. Suddenly I was faced with a choice: Legan\u00e9s or Chelsea? It was risky, but luckily the right decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think patience is crucial in football. It\u2019s not always just about money. If you play well, it will come naturally. I\u2019m young, I need to play to increase my sporting value, to improve. And I wouldn\u2019t get that on the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diomande has also accused his agent of undermining a transfer after trials with Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Rangers, while reports say Bournemouth also took him on trial. The young Ivory Coast winger impressed quickly: six months of senior football in Spain preceded a \u20ac20 million move to Leipzig.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s recruitment has been criticised in recent years, and Diomande is the kind of low-cost prospect the club\u2019s BlueCo ownership aims to identify \u2014 finding the player before he reaches a \u00a3100 million valuation. Had an agreement been reached in 2024, the fee would likely have been a fraction of what the winger is expected to command now.<\/p>\n
Diomande is now linked with a host of elite clubs. Bayern Munich have indicated a preference to keep him in the Bundesliga, while Arsenal and Liverpool have been most strongly connected in England. Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United have also been mentioned, though United are believed to have other priorities.<\/p>\n
Red Bull director Oliver Mintzlaff recently insisted a bid of \u20ac90 million would not be enough to convince Leipzig to sell Diomande this summer, signalling that any suitor will need to prepare a significant offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Diomande turned down Chelsea in 2024, chose Legan\u00e9s and now commands huge interest and fee for \u20ac20m<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1163],"tags":[1446,983,1162],"class_list":["post-6906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-transfers","tag-academy","tag-agents","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}