Yan Diomande will carry the weight of personal tragedy when Ivory Coast face Germany in their second World Cup group match on Saturday evening.
The 19-year-old winger lost his younger sister Roxanne a year ago, aged just 15, after her drink was spiked at a social event.
In a searingly honest letter published by The Players’ Tribune this week, Diomande dedicated his every performance on the pitch to her memory.
“Everything I do on a football pitch, it’s for you,” the teenager wrote in the heartfelt open letter addressed directly to his late sister.
Diomande revealed the emotional void left by her passing, writing: “Now, I don’t feel anything. It’s like I’m not even human. Since you died, I’m just blank.”
He added: “I don’t try to forget, because I know I won’t forget. All I can do is use the pain to work harder, and to do everything we dreamed about.”
The loss was made even harder by the fact Diomande was living abroad at the time, away from his family, playing for Spanish club Leganes.
His subsequent move to RB Leipzig proved transformative, with the winger scoring 12 goals in his debut Bundesliga season and drawing admiring glances from clubs across Europe.
Liverpool and Paris St-Germain have both begun making efforts to sign him, a remarkable development for a player who once had unsuccessful trials at Bournemouth, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, and Rangers.
Bundesliga English-language commentator Kevin Hatchard has watched Diomande’s rise at close quarters and says the teenager has the mentality to match his technical gifts.
“I commentated on his first game in Germany and he was clearly phenomenal,” Hatchard says, pointing to an insatiable desire to influence every match.
“What marks him out as special is he always wants to take responsibility, being on the ball and making things happen all the time. He isn’t selfish either and his work-rate without the ball is incredible – he is willing to press and track back.”
Last season Diomande ranked highest among all Bundesliga wingers for successful dribbles and duels won, underlining just how dominant he has been in one of Europe’s most competitive leagues.
Hatchard believes the step up to the Premier League would pose little problem, describing him as “very level-headed” and someone who “wants to prove that he does belong at the top level.”
Manchester United winger Amad Diallo, who scored the winner against Ecuador in Ivory Coast’s opening match, is equally effusive about his young team-mate.
“The ‘golden boy’, as we call him,” Diallo said. “Penetration, dribbling – his speciality, he’s someone who is very strong one on one.”
Veteran Ivorian broadcaster and journalist Mamadou Gaye says Diomande captured the imagination of an entire nation during a World Cup qualifier against Kenya last October.
“Since then many are saying that he is the heir to Didier Drogba for us. At 19, he is the hope of a nation,” Gaye said.
Gaye also spoke movingly about the bond between Diomande and his sister, noting they shared meals, housework, and even a bedroom growing up together in a modest part of Abidjan.
“His letter to her is a cry of love and message about nefarious intentions and criminality understood by the youth of the Ivory Coast and Africa,” Gaye added.
Ivory Coast have never progressed beyond the group stage in their three previous World Cup appearances, despite fielding generational talents such as Yaya Toure and Didier Drogba in 2006, 2010, and 2014.
Their opening victory over Ecuador has set up a genuine opportunity to change that, and Diomande says the squad’s mindset is different from those who came before.
“I think we have more desire,” he said. “There isn’t a lot of expectation on us, so we have nothing to lose and we’ll give it everything. That’s what our mentality needs to be.”
For Diomande, the World Cup stage is not simply a sporting occasion but something far more personal and profound.
“I don’t even look at it like a game,” he wrote. “I look at it like a stage. This is my chance to show the whole world what you saw in me. Every time I score, I’ll make sure everybody knows your name. I’ll make sure they don’t forget you.”
