Yan Diomande is the most expensive signing in Real Madrid history, but his career trajectory could have been drastically different if not for the developmental guidance of coach Todd Eason at Florida's DME Academy. A lot can change in one year, just ask Yan Diomande. Today, he’s the Bundesliga Rookie of the Season and a fully capped Ivory Coast international winger. But at the start of last season, nobody knew who he even was. Well, almost nobody. Todd Eason knew that Diomande was going to be special when he first laid eyes on him in 2022. Born in Abidjan, Diomande grew up in poverty and grew accustomed to sharing a roof with 25 other people and playing soccer either barefoot or with plastic sandals. And with his father abandoning the house and moving to France when he was still a youngster, Diomande always knew that he’d be tasked with leading his family out of poverty. It’s why, at nine years old, he joined the Académie Inter Foot Sud Comoé, where he finally secured a pair of boots and started plying his trade near the Ghana-Ivory Coast border. But he still struggled with destitute conditions and once had to steal potatoes from a shop alongside 19 other kids to avoid going hungry. He always knew that, in order to get a top-class academic and soccer education, he’d need to leave Africa. Todd Eason saw Diomande’s true potential When he was 15 years old, Diomande flew to Florida and started a new chapter with DME Academy alongside Todd Eason, DME’s Director of Soccer from April 2021 to January 2024 and their Athletic Director from January 2024 to October 2024. Despite not speaking any English initially, Diomande flourished in Daytona Beach for both DME and their semi-pro affiliate AS Frenzi, leading the latter to the 2023 United Premier Soccer League. Yan Diomande, former RB Leipzig player Unfortunately, he was unable to secure a permanent contract with a number of MLS and European sides before returning to Abidjan upon the expiry of his student visa. Nevertheless, Diomande would soon earn a move to Spanish side Leganés, scoring 2 goals and 1 assist in 10 appearances before then taking his talents to German outfit RB Leipzig. It didn’t take him long to justify Leipzig’s $23 million investment, racking up 13 goals and 10 assists in 36 appearances and leading them from a 7th-place finish in 2024/25 to 3rd in 2025/26. He didn’t just make his impact at the club level, but also at the international level, debuting for the Ivory Coast and competing in the Africa Cup of Nations. And after winning the Bundesliga Rookie of the Season award, Diomande returned to North America and excelled at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, spearheading the Elephants to their first-ever World Cup knockout match. “[His World Cup performances were] great, and I know he had a couple of games that… I wouldn’t say they were not good games; I just didn’t think he got the touches on the ball as he did in the first game,” stated Eason in an exclusive World Soccer Talk interview. “Again, no one really knew about him. If they’re playing some of the bigger countries that have some of those players that are from the Bundesliga on them, then they knew him. But no CONMEBOL / CONCACAF team had any idea who ‘Dio’ was, and they struggled with him because they didn’t know what he was. I think from the four games, the first game vs. Ecuador gave him the biggest exposure ever, and people were like, ‘Who the heck is this guy?’ “And luckily, Ivory Coast as a whole was a very strong team as well, which helped him be successful in those games, but I think as the tournament went on, he dealt with a lot of pressure from the outside. I think there were so many interviews…everybody wanted to interview him after the first game. Everybody wanted to capture this story, and I feel like he ended up taking on a lot that was off the field that maybe made him a little bit more stressed. Or maybe he was just a little bit exhausted by what a professional player had to do off the field. I saw that as
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