‘I learned a lot’ - How America shaped RB Leipzig star Yan Diomande, from UPSL to the UEFA Champions League

Among the things he learned? The fact that he could dominate a game in full. The reasons for his American education are complex. Diomande was 15 when he left the Ivory Coast, and too young to sign a professional contract. There had been interest from agents and chances elsewhere. But with no official deal on the table, his family decided to send him to America. 

“I couldn't join a professional team, because I was young and from Africa. It's different there. You need to turn 18 before you play professionally,” Diomande said. 

And so, a 15-year-old from Abidjan, the largest city in the Ivory Coast, moved to Florida. It was a slightly insane idea at the time. Diomande, now 19, didn’t mind it. 

“The system was like this. They told me to go to the USA. I didn't ask, because that was my first time traveling, so I was just happy. I was young,” Diomande recalled.

The U.S. might just have been the perfect forum for Diomande to develop, though. He was one of thousands of highly-rated youngsters in his homeland. Ivory Coast sends footballers around the world in spades - many of them to European academies. A lot of those don’t make it. Diomande, in going to America, got time to develop away from the spotlight. 

He starred for DME Academy in Daytona Beach, Fla. The sports-only postgraduate boarding school, full of foreign players, focused heavily on getting reps in. And Diomande was a class above from Day 1. He could take on players with ease, and once he got into attacking areas, it was game over. 

But the UPSL, effectively the fourth tier of American soccer, was where he cut his teeth. He stood out in tryouts. A group of DME players was sent to show their skills in a scrimmage for AS Frenzi. It was a tough group, full of the top talents in the state of Florida as well as former national team players from around the world. And Diomande, then 16, battered everyone. 

Weston can’t remember how many goals he scored or his exact stat line. But his quality was clear to see. 

“Dio?” Weston asked with a chuckle. “Well, he was a spectacle to watch. He was so creative, and the amount of speed that he had on the ball.” 

Eventually, six players from DME made the team. All of them were talents who went on to play in college or pursue professional opportunities. Diomande was at another level. Weston made it a priority to set up the side around the Ivorian. Sure, the UPSL was a forum for development. But Weston wanted to win. Curiously, the coach deployed Diomande as a wing back, further away from the goal than Diomande was used to. The reason? He could get the ball sooner. And when he had it, no one could really stop him, either. 

“You're asking yourself, ‘Why aren't we getting the ball to his feet?’ If he's always in a position to receive, always courageous to take players on,” Weston said. 

He was a dream to coach, Weston said. Diomande was dangerous with the ball and a hard worker without it. He could go up and down, both creating for others and setting up play for himself. He was a little quiet. But the intensity in training was apparent. 

“I knew I had the potential to play in a professional team. So I was just there to keep training and progressing,” Diomande said. 

That much was clear every week. Diomande pressed like a maniac, yet had the pace and smarts to get back into the right positions when Frenzi had the ball. He carried them through the regular season and playoffs - while also winning league MVP for his high school team. By the time Frenzi got to the championship, Diomande was a known quantity. Opponents had prepared for him. 

Stopping the ball from going into the net, though? That was a different story. 

“They had all seen it on film before the teams that we were playing, but they had never seen it up close and personal. And then I think that that was what really shocked them,” Weston said.

Yet life in America wasn’t entirely easy for Diomande. For him, school was laborious. Diomande would much rather be on the pitch. In European academies, there is an understanding that soccer comes first - and the education can be built around it. He was in the States on a student Visa, attending an American school. For all of the talk about football, education shared equal footing. It is an unfortunate byproduct for someone who wanted to kick a ball - and not think about much else. 

“It was just football, football, football,” he said, illustrating his preference for sports. 

And he found it hard being away from his family, too. Diomande had never traveled outside of Africa. There were very few home comforts around in a boarding school. It was difficult, he admitted. 

“I had never been far away from my family like that,” Diomande added. 

But he liked American sports. Basketball, in particular, appealed to the teenager. Diomande spent hours watching it. 

“I went to the U.S., and I started watching basketball there. We were playing basketball as well, because we had a basketball team and a volleyball, too. I was watching those kinds of sports,” he said. 

The sport was a bond among most of the footballers, especially those from abroad. In a state that lacked a soccer culture - or at least preferred the major American sports - there were some parallels to be drawn. 

“Footballers like basketball. They like football because they can't imagine someone can take ball with his leg and shoot from 15 meters. We can’t imagine you take a ball and shoot from very far and score,” Diomande said.

Once he turned 17, he was free to seek out a professional home. Weston knew that Diomande was in negotiations during the UPSL season. He had a trial with Rangers, but returned to the U.S. Other offers came in. At the time, Diomande had a difficult relationship with his agent. 

“It’s different in Africa. You don’t really speak to your agent. There, they think about themselves first,” he said. 

Diomande had a radically different experience than many highly rated prospects from around the world. 

“Your agent is different there. Here, in Europe, your agent is gonna come and say, ‘Oh, I have something for you.’ Come this way,” he said. 

Spanish side Leganes showed interest. Diomande was intrigued by the offer. But with a lack of transparency from his agency, Diomande dodged the deal - at first at least. 

“I spoke to the President, and he was trying to tell me to come. I don't know how they spoke with my agent. So I stopped working with that agent,” he said. 

A new face had him on trial at Olympiacos. He almost signed for the Greek giants. However, Diomande wasn’t comfortable. It took him little time to realize that Greece wasn’t for him. So he got back in touch with Leganes’ president immediately. 

“I called him back, and he said, ‘You can come tomorrow if you want,’” Diomande recalled. 

Everything was agreed swiftly. Diomande trained in Dubai until he turned 18. He joined Leganes shortly after his 18th birthday and needed two months with the reserve side to break into the first team. He made his debut against Real Madrid, and tallied 10 appearances for Leganes at the back end of the 2024-25 season, scoring twice and adding an assist. 

That was enough for Leipzig to spend $23 million to secure his signature last summer.

Since then, his star has only risen. He was an almost immediate starter for Leipzig, who were supposed to be going through something of a rebuilding season. They lost star attacking duo Benjamin Sesko and Lois Openda over the summer. 

Brazilian striker Romulo Cruz figured to be the man to provide the goals through the middle, but many hoped that Norwegian youngster Antonio Nusa would take the next step as the chief creator from out wide.

Instead, Diomande has filled that role. He is Leipzig’s joint top scorer, and in October, he was called up to the Ivory Coast national team for the first time (he scored in each of his first two appearances). 

“I’m trying to stay concentrated and listen to the coaching staff and to play my own game. People can see everything is going well, so I'm not gonna stop,” he said. 

Reports at the end of 2025 had Diomande valued as high as $116 million (€100 million). 

There are strong links with Liverpool - a club Diomande has openly admitted he would like to play for - and talk of another big-money move this summer. 

Diomande doesn’t read the hype, as much as his friends are constantly reminding him of it. 

"My friends try to send it to me, but I try to stay focused and calm,” he said. 

Leipzig are in second, and pushing for Champions League football - despite widespread expectations that they would struggle. Diomande has eight goal contributions in just under 900 minutes. His goal against Burkina Faso was a bright spot in an otherwise patchy AFCON campaign. 

It is hard to believe that this kid was kicking a ball in Florida not too long ago. Diomande is just as surprised. But this is just another step - the next bit of the journey after the comparatively quaint UPSL championship win. 

“For me, it was gonna gonna take like, two or three years. I’m working hard as well, and I'm happy, like everything happens so quickly, and I hope to keep going until the season ends,” he said.