Yan Diomande’s rise from Leganes’ second team to one of the hottest properties in European football began with a three‐day spell that transformed him from an injured prospect into a player dazzling at the Santiago Bernabeu – and now valued at more than €100m.
Before that decisive week, the Ivory Coast forward was merely a youngster easing his way back from injury and turning out for the Leganes B side. Within 72 hours, a standout display in a behind‐closed‐doors friendly convinced then head coach Borja Jimenez that he had to be fast‐tracked to La Liga – and thrown into a meeting with Real Madrid.
Jimenez, now in charge of Al Ahli in Qatar, has revealed how those few days effectively launched Diomande’s career, insisting the talent was obvious from the moment he saw him in person.
The ‘new Messi’ on a YouTube clip
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Jimenez first heard Diomande’s name long before the friendly that changed everything.
“I heard about Yan for the first time when Jeff Luhnow, the owner of Leganes, showed me a homemade video of him on YouTube,” Jimenez told Spanish newspaper Marca. “He was about 16 years old and was studying at one of the club’s academies in the United States.”
“Jeff said to me: we have the new Messi. And what I saw in that video was truly amazing.”
The coach would not actually see Diomande live until a week before Leganes’ league trip to Real Madrid on 29 March 2025, during a training‐ground match at the Estadio Municipal de Butarque against the club’s reserve team.
A friendly that changed a career
“In that friendly at Butarque against the B team, Yan had only played a few minutes for them the previous week, and I hadn’t seen him before,” Jimenez said.
“In his first action he dribbled past his marker with ease, then did it again the next time he got the ball. After that he played a brilliant through ball with an unbelievable first touch, then received the ball in the box, set himself and hit it into the top corner.”
“After only five or six contributions, I called the B‐team coach and told him: take Yan off the pitch, because he’s going to get kicked in the next action. Get him out immediately and have him train with us tomorrow.”
Jimenez stressed that the decision was not an overreaction, but a protective move.
“He only played 45 minutes because he was coming back from injury, and he was so far ahead of the rest that it can create tension in matches,” the Spaniard explained. “I was expecting a heavy challenge on him, so we preferred to substitute him.”
Lesson in the first‐team dressing room
Once Diomande stepped up to first‐team training, Jimenez chose to focus on his behaviour rather than tactics.
“I didn’t talk to him about football, but about how to conduct himself in the first team,” he said. “I asked him to keep performing at the same level, but to respect the hierarchy in the dressing room.”
“I told him: you have to arrive first and leave last, help your team‐mates and understand that you are the new guy. I wanted him to grasp the rules of professionalism before anything else.”
According to Jimenez, the message landed immediately.
“I wanted to be a mentor for him in his first steps towards being a professional, and he understood everything I told him perfectly,” he said.
At the end of Diomande’s first session with the senior squad, one experienced team‐mate quickly shared his verdict.
“We were walking towards the dressing room when Dani Raba came up to me and said: this kid is fantastic,” Jimenez recalled. “I replied: yes, he really is fantastic.”
Bernabeu debut and instant impact
After impressing in training, the staff had no hesitation in adding Diomande to the squad for the trip to Real Madrid.
“We went to the Bernabeu needing a positive result, and we brought him on in about the 80th minute,” Jimenez said. “From the start we were convinced he was a different kind of player.”
“His first touches were a wonderful way of changing the tempo of play inside the box, before he was involved in an incident where we appealed for a penalty that wasn’t given. From that moment, his career started to take shape naturally.”
What struck Jimenez most was not only Diomande’s quality on the ball but his mentality.
“He didn’t show any fear, even though it was his first game at the Santiago Bernabeu, a stadium that overwhelms a lot of young players,” he said.
From relegation fight to missed European push
Jimenez believes Diomande’s late arrival in the first team cost Leganes the chance to chase European qualification.
“If we had had him with us since January, we might have been fighting for European places instead of battling against relegation,” he said. “But he was only with us for a month and a half.”
“He was a decisive player, he scored goals and changed the course of many matches. Even against Sevilla, despite missing a clear chance, his impact was enormous.”
From €20m gamble to €100m‐plus asset
Interest from abroad followed quickly once Diomande established himself, with several foreign clubs asking about his availability when his price was set at around €20m – the fee eventually paid by RB Leipzig.
“People told me €20m was a lot of money,” Jimenez said. “I answered that his value would double two or three times over the next year or two.”
The market moved even faster than he anticipated. After joining RB Leipzig for €20m, Diomande’s valuation has soared within a single season, and he is now close to a move worth between €100m and €120m.
For Jimenez, it is confirmation that the teenager who once lit up a quiet friendly at Butarque is now one of the outstanding emerging talents in European football.
