A phone call in an unexpected language: Mourinho, the unsung hero in the Diomande deal

Real Madrid showed no serious interest in signing the Ivorian last season. The club weren't in the market for a new winger, and Nico Paz was expected to return through a buy-back clause after impressing at Como since leaving Los Blancos in 2024.

Liverpool sat closest of all. The prospect of succeeding club legend Mohamed Salah appealed to Diomande.

He can operate on either flank too, a quality Liverpool's sporting management prize highly.

Diomande scored 13 goals and provided nine assists in 36 matches with Leipzig last season.

His contract runs until 2030 and carries no release clause. Leipzig tried to tie him down to a new deal, but the player wanted a step up, even as his agents knew the club would demand a record fee to sanction any sale.

Representatives held meetings with several clubs, Manchester City and Atletico Madrid among them. Both told them the player didn't fit their needs.

Liverpool stepped up their interest last May, only for Leipzig to slap a 130 million euro price tag on him. The English club tried to knock it down, especially with their net spend hitting around 223 million pounds across the 2025-2026 season and further deals still to close.

Diomande had his heart set on the move, and he'd already spoken with new manager Andoni Iraola.

After that first official contact, Liverpool told Leipzig they were ready to table an offer of around 100 million euros. It fell well short of what the German club wanted.

Paris Saint-Germain then entered the picture. Their president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, enjoys a good relationship with Red Bull group chief executive Oliver Mintzlaff.

Sporting advisor Luis Campos and coach Luis Enrique also played a key part in convincing Diomande that Paris Saint-Germain was the right move for him.

Liverpool, the player was told, faced a transitional phase next season. He preferred to work under Luis Enrique and chase a third consecutive Champions League title.

Those close to Diomande even believed he could win the Ballon d'Or with a switch to Paris. The deal collapsed in the end, with the French club hesitant to meet his financial demands and unwilling to pay the fee Leipzig wanted.

No one saw what was coming next. Real Madrid suddenly entered the picture.

The Athletic revealed in late June that new coach José Mourinho, back at Real Madrid 13 years after his first spell ended, was monitoring a right winger alongside the club's scouting team.

Real Madrid were trying to offload Brahim Díaz at the same time, despite the player wanting to stay. Rumours swirled about the club's interest in Bayern Munich's Michael Olise, yet Real Madrid denied it in private and even issued an official statement rejecting the existence of any negotiations.

Reports kept linking Olise to the club, but behind the scenes the management were working on the Diomande deal. Mourinho and the Real Madrid hierarchy sat down in planning meetings and agreed the right side of the attack needed strengthening.

They had noticed the team leaned heavily on the left flank, where Vinícius Júnior shines and both Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappé make a significant impact.

The feeling inside Real Madrid was that the lack of attacking threat on the opposite flank was limiting their options and making life easier for opposing defenders. Mourinho, who played a pivotal role in the negotiations, laid out this vision to Diomande directly.

Nathan Campbell, head of global player recruitment at ROC Nation and Diomande's agent, said: "The final piece that sealed everything was José Mourinho."

He added: "He spoke to him in fluent French, and that had a huge impact on him. We did not know that Mourinho spoke French so fluently, because he had never coached any French club. But the timing of the call he made with Yan, and the way he spoke to him in fluent French about his ideas, the project, and how he would fit into the team, showed that he was placing great importance on this conversation. That was a decisive point, and it was the key to convincing him."

Real Madrid also reached for one of their usual touches in deals like this, presenting Diomande with a white shirt bearing the club crest.

It went further still. They handed him a clear plan for his career, mapping out his individual and collective development at the club. It even included case studies, among them how Vinícius Júnior's career had grown since he joined the Bernabéu.

Michael Yormark, international president of ROC Nation, said the hard work and sacrifices Diomande has made throughout his career are the reason he is "achieving his dream" of playing for Real Madrid.

On 26 July, Paris Saint-Germain officially pulled out of the race, refusing to meet the financial terms demanded by both the player's camp and Leipzig.

Sources close to the player had already told PSG something else: Diomande wanted Real Madrid.

The Spanish club treated it as a partial win, even with talks still unresolved.

Real Madrid had lodged a first offer in mid-July worth around 100 million euros in total. Leipzig rejected it. A second offer followed, built on a fixed sum close to 100 million euros and an overall package reaching 120 million euros, yet the German club turned that down too, even though it stayed on the table for around a week.

Both sides still expected to find common ground. At the start of August, Diomande missed Leipzig's training camp, with the club citing illness.

He returned to the training camp yesterday, Wednesday, waiting on the green light from the club's management to travel to Spain for a medical.

Within hours, Real Madrid and Leipzig struck a final agreement on a deal that could rise to 140 million euros, a record figure in the German club's history. The transfer was officially announced today, Thursday.