SHINE LIKE A DIOMANDE
Yan Diomande only graduated from school two years ago – now he’s one of the most wanted young footballers in the world «When Dio got here, I was like, ‘holy cow this kid is much better than anyone I have seen’» - Diomande’s former coach, Todd Eason Words: Bence Bocsak WORLD SOCCER - April 2026 Working as a director of soccer at the DME Academy, an elite private sports school in Florida, Todd Eason has seen plenty of talented kids from all over the globe. But none of them were quite like Yan Diomande. “Yan came to us from one of our partners in Africa,” Eason, the school’s former director of soccer, tells World Soccer . “I knew right away there was something different about him.” Eason had seen clips of Diomande as a 15-year-old scoring goals for fun at the West African Football Union Under-17 tournament, prompting him to bring the player over from the Ivory Coast. Four years on, he is an Ivory Coast international, a regular in the Bundesliga and a transfer target for a host...