Before Yan Diomande became one of the most sought-after names in the transfer market, and before his value exceeded 100 million euros, he was just a young player who had recently returned from injury and was playing with Leganes' reserve side.
Three days changed the course of his future. He dazzled everyone in a friendly, became a La Liga player within days, and made his first appearance in a Leganes shirt against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Borja Jimenez, the former Leganes head coach and current manager of Al-Ahli of Qatar, has revealed the details of those days that shaped the beginning of the Ivorian star's career. His talent, Jimenez confirmed, was exceptional from the very first touch.
It started with a video on YouTube
Jimenez casts his mind back to the first time he heard Diomande's name, saying: "I first heard about Yan when Jeff Luhnow, the owner of Leganes, showed me a home video of him on YouTube. He was around 16 years old and was studying at one of the club's academies in the United States."
Speaking to Spanish newspaper "Marca", he added: "Jeff told me: we have the new Messi. And what I saw in that video was truly astonishing."
The Spaniard will never forget the first time he saw Diomande on the pitch, just one week before the clash with Real Madrid on 29 March 2025.
He said: "We played a friendly at the Butarque stadium against the reserve team. Yan had only played a few minutes with the reserves the previous week, but I had never seen him before."
He added: "In his first action he dribbled past his opponent with ease, then repeated it in the second, and after that he played a superb through ball with an astonishing first touch, then received the ball inside the penalty area, set it up for himself and fired it into the top corner."
Five or six moments were all it took. He continued: "I called the reserve team coach and told him: take Yan off the pitch, because he is going to get kicked in the next action. Take him off immediately and have him train with us tomorrow."
His decision was no exaggeration. It came to protect the player. Jimenez said: "He played only 45 minutes because he was returning from injury, and he was also far superior to the rest of the players, which can sometimes cause tension during matches. I expected a violent challenge against him, so we preferred to substitute him."
The first lesson: an early word of praise
Once Diomande joined first-team training, Jimenez wanted to deliver a special message to the young player. It was not a technical one.
He said: "I did not talk to him about football, but about conduct within the first team. I asked him to keep producing the same level, but to respect the hierarchy inside the dressing room."
He added: "I told him: you must arrive first, leave last, help your team-mates and realise that you are the new player. I wanted him to understand the rules of professionalism before anything else."
Diomande grasped the message quickly, Jimenez confirmed: "I wanted to be a guide for him in his first steps towards professionalism, and he understood everything I told him perfectly."
One moment stuck with him from that first session. "We were walking towards the dressing room when Dani Raba approached me and said: this kid is brilliant. I replied: yes, he really is brilliant."
The first appearance at the Bernabeu
His impressive form in training left the coaching staff in no doubt. They named him in the squad for the match against Real Madrid.
Jimenez said: "We went to the Bernabeu needing a positive result, and we brought him on in around the 80th minute. From the start we were convinced he was a different kind of player."
He added: "His first touches were a wonderful change of tempo inside the penalty area, before he was fouled in a challenge that led to a penalty appeal that was not given. And from that moment, his career began to take shape naturally."
What caught the former Leganes coach's attention most was not the technical side. It was the player's character.
He said: "He showed no fear at all, even while playing for the first time at the Santiago Bernabeu, a stadium that unsettles many young players."
A month and a half that changed everything
Diomande could have changed Leganes' fate had he joined the first team earlier, Jimenez felt.
He explained: "If he had been with us since January, we might have competed for European places instead of a relegation battle, but he stayed with us only a month and a half."
He added: "He was a decisive player, he scored goals and changed the course of many matches. And even against Sevilla, despite missing a clear-cut chance, his impact was very evident."
Plenty of foreign clubs enquired about Diomande when his value stood at around 20 million euros, the amount Leipzig paid to sign him, Jimenez revealed.
He said: "They told me that 20 million euros was a large amount, so I replied that his value would double or triple within a year or two."
Reality moved faster than his expectations. The player's value rocketed in a single season. After his 20 million euros move to Leipzig, he is now close to leaving in a deal worth between 100 and 120 million euros, confirming his status as one of the most prominent rising talents in European football.