Former coach explains why Yan Diomande is destined to succeed at Real Madrid

Former coach explains why Yan Diomande is destined to succeed at Real Madrid Although Real Madrid have brought in several very exciting new players to their team this summer, the winger Yan Diomande is one player who will excite the most fans, not only with his electric play style and dribbling quality, but also because of his young age. The Merengues have brought him to their team from the Bundesliga side RB Leipzig after paying a club-record fee of €125 million fixed and agreeing another €15 million in variables. He is going to be an important player for Jose Mourinho next season, and will complete the attacking trident with Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior. However, this is not going to be the first time he plays in La Liga. It was in this competition that he made his debut at the highest professional level, and the coach who gave him this opportunity with the Levante first team was Borja Iglesias, who is currently managing the Qatari side Al-Ahli. The tactician appeared in an interview with Diario AS , and talked at some length about Diomande. The Spanish coach revealed that the Ivorian had shown incredible potential from a very young age: “Look, the reality is that from the very first training session, we saw things that I had rarely seen before. I was fortunate enough to coach Yeremay in the early stages of his career, and he is also a game-changing player, but what Yan showed in that first training session was the kind of individual talent to do things at just 18 years of age that were on another level and that we did not have in our squad. Then, the first week confirmed to us that it was not an isolated incident, but that he had enormous room for improvement. Since he asked us to and we believed we could help him during those ten weeks, we did specific work after training sessions focused on decision-making and understanding the game, which was where he adapted most quickly. When it comes to finishing, that comes with age, but we tried to help him enormously with his understanding of the game. In the end, our job was to simplify things: I told him that when he had the ball at his feet, he was the one who decided. My job was to get the ball to him in the best possible conditions so that he could exploit his innate talent. In fact, I recently sent him a video with some of his plays because he was still telling me that the defensive concepts involving recovery runs that we worked on with him when we played in a 3-4-3 system, where he operated as a wing-back across the pitch, had helped him enormously in Germany. From the first week, we knew he was special and that he would contribute from day one. At the end of the year, I publicly said that his value would double or triple within one or two years, and the truth is that I underestimated it because it has multiplied five or six times. Those of us who work in football every day and have been coaching for ten or twelve years were very clear that Yan possessed qualities that were completely different.” Jimenez was also confident that Diomande can play comfortably on the right wing: “Absolutely. I would say that 70% of his minutes in Germany, almost all of which I was able to watch, came on the right wing. It’s true that with us, the vast majority of his minutes were on the left, but with Ivory Coast at the World Cup, we frequently saw him appear on the right, starting from a wide position. He will have no problem playing on either flank with the same quality when it comes to dribbling. These days, I’ve heard some analysts question his ability with his left foot, but it’s quite the opposite…” The Spanish coach also highlighted the winger’s ambidexterity: “Don’t have any doubt that it is exactly like that. That was one of the first things he showed us during his first week of training: his ease in using both sides of his body, both to pass and to carry the ball. Anyone who says they are concerned about how Yan will handle the ball with his left foot… it shows they have watched very little of him.” In addition to his skills with the ball, the coach also talked highly of the player’s mentality: “Not only in footballing terms. With us, we saw something similar after the famous match against Sevilla, when he received a lot of criticism for not scoring that goal. In the very next match, just five days later against Espanyol, he had already scored a goal in the first half, provided an assist and forced the opposition to change their right-back. That demonstrates an enormous capacity for resilience.” Despite doubts about whether he will be able to perform at Real Madrid where pressure is always extremely high, Jimenez was confident the Diomande will prove himself to be a decisive player: “Absolutely, 100%. Yan is made of different stuff and has an incredible hunger. Obviously, when he arrives at Real Madrid, he will quickly realise that the demands and media exposure are nothing like what he has experienced so far, but I have complete confidence in his ability to prove that he is a different kind of player. Time will tell, but there were doubts about his performances in Germany and he ended up being named the best young player. There were also doubts about his role at the World Cup, and he showed that he is an outstanding player. I think the same thing will happen at Madrid, despite it being the most demanding environment a footballer can face. I have no doubt that from the very first day, he will get the Bernabéu fans on their feet with his football.” Hopefully, the words of Borja Jimenez will turn out to be true and Yan Diomande will only enjoy success and greatness with his move to Real Madrid.