Ian Diomond interview: World Cup with Cote d’Ivoire, his gratitude to RB Leipzig and trial with Crystal Palace | football news

“Everything happened quickly,” says Ian Diomande. Indeed, it’s remarkable now to think that Diomonde’s entire senior career last year came with half a dozen starts for Leganes at the end of last season as they were relegated from La Liga.

He scored in two of those six games, against Espanyol and Valladolid. Even in the other four his team did not find the net. But the teenager did enough to convince RB Leipzig to part with €20m to bring them to the Bundesliga. Once there, he had a revelation.

Exciting to watch and impossible to defend, Diomande Baz is full of unexpected initiatives. He has things that can’t be coached and he’s getting better at hearing them. The biggest clubs want him. The rest cannot bear him.

“This year has been amazing for me,” he said, in conversation with a select group of journalists from around the world “To play in the AFCON at 19, to qualify for the World Cup, to play in the Champions League, and I’m on my way to the World Cup. I’m just proud.”

The numbers provide context to explain the hype. This season, his first in the Bundesliga, remember, brought 12 goals and eight assists. But perhaps most notably, he delivered 118 successful dribbles, 50 more than any other player in the competition.

Diomonde hits the defenders. He scored on his debut and added a hat-trick against Eintracht Frankfurt in December. A clear bargain during the week, it was soon inevitable that he would become Leipzig’s record sale. How did the rest of football miss him?

Unusual route to the top

The origin story of football’s next superstar is unusual. Born in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, he was just a boy when he immigrated to the United States in search of opportunity. “Living alone, it’s not a problem because it’s been that way since I was little,” she explains.

“I didn’t live with my family. I left my family.” Experience has molded him. He described it as “going somewhere else and fighting and training hard” because that’s what he’s always done. “I could be alone forever,” he reiterated. “It’s no problem for me.”

He downplays the difficulties of his fresh start in the state. “It was easy. It’s really hard in Africa. I know I was alone and it was hard with the language, the culture. But it was a great experience.” He trained at a specialist athletic academy in Florida.

There, his talent was evident and he subsequently traveled around Europe, briefly leading a nomadic life. He had trials in Scotland with Premier League clubs Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth. Again, he considered all this as an adventure.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” she says with a laugh. “For me, it was fun to go from club to club like that, watching players like (Michael) Ollis and (Eberechi) Eze. It was a good experience.” He also recalled a visit to Olympiakos. “Then I signed for Leganes.”

Heroes and role models

It proved an ideal landing base in Europe, high profile enough to attract attention but far enough from the spotlight to learn. “Everybody knows that I want to fight every day. I want to win every day. I want to do everything for the team,” he said.

Heroes? “My idol used to be Cristiano Ronaldo and I also like R9 but I look up to a lot of players like Vinny and (Kylian) Mbappe. I try to look at players who play in the same position as me to take the good things and try to reproduce them on the pitch.”

Meanwhile, Diomande himself is a role model. “I’m happy to hear that and I want to continue. I’m human. I can make mistakes. If you don’t play a good game, you have to recognize it and work harder for the next one. I’ve had a lot of **** games during the season.”

Diomande’s humility is endearing and almost every sentence sounds like inspiration. “Sometimes it’s good to be under pressure. You have to give everything every day, every minute, every second. Every day you have to improve something, even one percent.”

Kudos to Leipzig

Particularly impressive is his obvious gratitude for believing in Leipzig. “No one knew me before,” he admits, with a rare self-awareness about his own condition at the time. “To put 20 million euros, it’s too much to buy a talent that no one knows. It was a big risk for them.”

There is no pretense about the financial implications of this move. It changed his life. “I know you can’t buy happiness with money but it’s a part of happiness. I got money from Leipzig to help my family, to bring my family here, to take care of them.”

He indicated the support he and his family have received. “A lot has come to me that no one knows about. Only the club has helped me.” Asked to elaborate on the specifics, he added: “I can’t explain, it’s too much. We need more time.”

But it’s enough to explain what drives him. “I want to thank everyone at the club who have given me this amazing opportunity to be here. All I can do for them is to give everything on the pitch and that’s what I’m trying to do every day.”

Growing up in Germany

Diomande matured in Germany. He always had a work ethic, a determination to maximize his potential. But life in Germany taught greater discipline. “First of all, there is no life in Germany,” he says “Life here is just work. It’s work, work and work.”

He admits it was different at Leganes “because it’s a bit more relaxed in Spain” where his season in the Bundesliga brought more demands, a more professional environment that will undoubtedly better prepare him for the next steps in his career.

“We have everything. We have a structure and the club helps us. It’s easy to work.” Although he has strange problems adjusting to German skills. Diomande had to get used to the fact that he must be back 90 minutes before the start of training.

“I got a lot of fines because I was ‘late’. Not five minutes before (training starts) but 30 or 40 minutes before and they’ll say you’re late. Nobody wants to lose free money like that so I learned a lot from that discipline,” he revealed.

Diomande laughs at the thought but clearly realizes that this schooling has benefited him – in Leipzig and potentially beyond. “It will be easier for me if I go somewhere else where there is more relief to get adapted quickly,” he added.

World Cup opportunity

Diomande’s immediate priority is a first World Cup appearance with Cote d’Ivoire. The country had failed to qualify for the previous two tournaments and had not made it out of the group stage in the previous three World Cups. But it is an opportunity.

“I want to help my country as much as possible,” said Diomande The spotlight will be on the teenagers, especially in the second group game when Cote d’Ivoire take on Germany in Toronto. “This question comes up all the time. I don’t just think about Germany,” he insists.

Even if not against Leipzig captain David Raum? “He’s my captain. Sometimes we talk, ‘I’m going to kill you’ or ‘I’m going to do it…’ but we’re still friends. It’ll be good to play against each other and change jerseys. It’ll be good.”

The future is beyond summer

Diomande is respectful and vocal about his future plans beyond the World Cup. “My contract runs until 2030 so I have four more years.” But everyone knows the Treaty of Leipzig. They help talent reach the top. That’s where Diomonde is going.

When asked where he sees himself in five years, he is initially cautious. “I’m not going to say anything crazy.” But the truth is not so crazy, not really. “I want to be one of the best in the field,” he added. But I want to go slowly, step by step, to reach what I want to do.”

Diomonde might want to go slow, but as he made clear at the outset, everything is happening fast where he’s concerned. It has already been an incredible journey but the reality of his situation is clear. “It’s not over. We have a lot to achieve.”