From stealing potatoes to survive to being one of the stars of the World Cup

Barcelona“Dear Roxane, do you remember when I was bought a fake United shirt and I wrote ‘Ronaldo 7’ on the back with a black marker? We didn’t know if we were rich or poor. But we were happy.” It begins this way the letter that young RB Leipzig footballer Yan Diomande (2006), one of the sensations of the World Cup with Ivory Coast, published a week ago on The Players Tribune. He dedicates it to his sister Roxane, who tragically died a few months ago: “They put something in her drink at a party and she never woke up again”. She was only 15 years old.

Born and raised in a house with 20 other people in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, as a child he was called Roberto Carlos because he kicked very hard. Yan got angry because his idol was Cristiano. “I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this story: with the other children I used to go to the village to steal potatoes because we were very hungry,” he told Roxane. As a teenager he emigrated to Europe to fulfill his dream of being a football player. He tried out at Bournemouth, Chelsea, Rangers, Olympiacos and Crystal Palace. They all told him no.

And he went to the United States: “Not even the MLS affiliates wanted me. I didn't know why. They took me from one place to another and everyone told me no.” Al Yan's visa expired and they sent him back to Africa, until he received the call from Leganés. They cried together with Roxane: “That's when I still felt emotions. I feel nothing anymore. Since you died, I am empty”.

The discovery of Diomande

“The owners of Leganés have several clubs and contacts with academies in Africa; it was usual for us to sign players from the continent. They came to the reserve team and if any stood out, we promoted them to the first team. And in his case, he came to play for the reserve team,” Txema Indias, sporting director of Leganés from 2015 to June 2025, explains to ARA. “Practically, there were no videos of him playing, but we signed him. Due to bureaucratic issues, it took a few months longer than expected for him to arrive and be able to compete,” he adds.

Now, Diomande is one of the sensations of the German league and the World Cup that is being played in America. With a market value of 90 million, PSG and Liverpool are fighting for him. But then, at the beginning of 2025, he was an absolute unknown who came alone to Spain to make a living. “We are not fortune tellers, but we immediately saw in training that at 18 years old the conditions he had were brutal: a winger with power, speed, imbalance, goals... I spoke with the coach Borja Jiménez and told him that we would promote him to the first team,” assures Indias, a key figure in the footballer's career, who from the first day was housed in a room without a television or luxuries at Leganés's sports city. He is not too interested in money and all he earned he sent to his family: “He has his head on straight”.

“He competed even better in the first team than in the reserve team. I remember some of the heavyweights of the team asking me: ‘Where did you get this guy from?’ A few days later he debuted at the Bernabéu,” comments Indias, who remembers him as an introverted and mentally very strong boy –“He missed a clear chance at Sevilla's ground that was key for staying up, but he bounced back immediately”–. He did not master the language and above all he had a relationship with Seydouba Cissé, who like him is African and had traveled the world looking for opportunities. At Leganés he acted as his godfather and was the only one to whom he explained the misfortune of his sister. “We didn't even find out,” recalls Indias.

“I didn't even cry”

Roxane died shortly after Diomande's debut, the day he swapped shirts with Mbappé. “Who debuts at 18 against Real Madrid? It was madness, a dream come true that ended up becoming a nightmare. I don't think I even cried when they told me you were gone. I was in shock,” Yan wrote in the letter, in which he explains to his sister that he is playing in the World Cup with his country, “like Drogba or Yaya Touré”. The letter has a very clear purpose: “I've written this because I can't talk about it. I'll make sure your memory lives on and that everyone knows your name. Everything I do on a football field is for you.”

Diomande didn't spend even a year at Leganés. He finished the season with 10 matches in the First Division and two goals –one of them against Espanyol, which almost sent them to the Second Division–; at the end of the season RB Leipzig went all out and paid 20 million for him. A year later, they would sell him for over 100. “It was an incredible explosion, but I couldn't imagine that some of Europe's biggest clubs would ask me about him,” says Txema Indias with a smile, happy and proud to see Yan Diomande shine at the World Cup.