Some transfer sagas refuse to follow a straight line.
PSG entered the race.
Liverpool bid £100 million twice, yet were rejected both times.
And now the club that has reshaped this entire story is Real Madrid.
The first concrete signal that a deal is happening has just emerged.
Yan Diomande is not going to pre-season.
Yan Diomande skips RB Leipzig pre-season camp as Real Madrid pursue €130m transfer for Ivory Coast teenager
According to The Athletic, the 19-year-old Ivory Coast winger will not attend RB Leipzig’s pre-season training camp, with the German club holding out for €130 million as negotiations with Real Madrid continue.
The significance of his pre-season absence cannot be overstated.
When a player doesn’t show up to training camp, the conversation about whether he leaves has ended.
It’s now just about the price.
And the price is extraordinary.
€130 million, approximately £111 million, would make Diomande the most expensive signing in Real Madrid’s history.
More than Kylian Mbappe.
More than any player Florentino Perez has ever signed.
For a 19-year-old who turned professional in the Bundesliga less than 18 months ago, the number is staggering.
But the talent behind it is not.
The World Cup made that impossible to ignore.
Diomande’s performances for Ivory Coast.
His directness, his ability to beat defenders in tight spaces, his finishing under pressure, turned him from highly-regarded Bundesliga prospect into the most coveted young winger in world football.
Liverpool felt it first.
Two bids submitted.
Both rejected.
Leipzig demanded figures that pushed the English champions away.
PSG emerged briefly as a suitor before ultimately not following through.
And then came Real Madrid.
A club with the financial power, the prestige and the specific attacking need that makes this pursuit entirely logical.
Thus, Jose Mourinho wants pace and directness on the left side of an attack built around Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior.
Diomande offers both.
Leipzig, for their part, will not be rushed.
They have Jurgen Klopp as global head of football and a sporting structure that has consistently held firm on valuations regardless of external pressure.
But with their star winger missing pre-season and Real Madrid at the table, the direction of travel is clear.
The gap between Leipzig’s demand and what Madrid are prepared to pay is the only thing standing in the way.
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