Didier Drogba’s advice to the newest Ivorian on José Mourinho’s books arrived with a warning wrapped inside a compliment. “Be careful, Mourinho is my dad,” Drogba told him. “You have to work hard, but he’s a good guy.” A fortnight into his life at Valdebebas, Yan Diomande reckons he already knows exactly what his compatriot meant. “When you play for Jose Mourinho, you want to die for him,” the 19-year-old told Sporty TV in his first extended interview as a Real Madrid player, as transcribed by Madrid Universal. “I am ready to do that.”
Everything said about the Ivory Coast winger this summer has run through one number. Real Madrid paid RB Leipzig a reported fee of close to €140 million for him, and Bernabéu Digital note that if the variables in the deal are triggered he would become the most expensive signing in the club’s history. His answer to it, every time, is that he cannot feel it.
Yan Diomande on the €140m: “Why will I be scared?”
“Real Madrid spent a lot of money on me. People are waiting to see me, but there is no pressure,” he said. “They spent a lot of money because they believe in me, why will I be scared? I’m not scared, I feel no pressure. I will do what I do, and God will do the rest.”
Asked to send a message to the supporters, he laughed and admitted: “I’m shy.” Then he tried again: “I will give everything for the club, they spent a lot of money on me.” Bernabéu Digital’s account of the same interview has him describing the moment the call came — “when they called me, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t believe it” — and, asked whether he would have believed it 14 months ago, answering with one word: “Of course.” Shy, then, but not short of belief.
Drogba’s warning and a 5am phone call
The Drogba conversation is the detail Madridistas will enjoy most. “Didier Drogba and I spoke some days ago,” Diomande explained. “He told me: ‘Be careful, Mourinho is my dad. You have to work hard, but he’s a good guy.’”
Mourinho had already done the groundwork himself. Diomande was taken aback that the head coach addressed him in French, and more so by the hour. “I think it was 5am in Portugal, he woke up to speak with me, so it means I was important,” he told Sporty TV, in quotes carried by Managing Madrid. “When Madrid calls, you will not say no.”
He is also clear-eyed about why the pairing might work. “Mourinho has a lot of personality, which is good for us because sometimes when you’re young, you are a bit everywhere; you lose focus sometimes,” he said. “I think he is the right manager for me to keep following my development as a young player.” A teenager carrying that price tag describing the most demanding coach in the game as a stabiliser rather than a risk is revealing in itself.
From swapping shirts with Mbappé to sharing a dressing room
There is a neat symmetry to how he got here. Real Madrid were Diomande’s first professional opponent, and the souvenir he kept from that night was Kylian Mbappé’s shirt. As he has said before, Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Cristiano Ronaldo are the players he grew up measuring himself against, according to Bernabéu Digital. Two of the three are now colleagues.
We set out what Madrid have actually bought in our profile of Diomande’s game, and he has already forced his way into Mourinho’s thinking, as we explained when we looked at the shape of Mourinho’s first XI.
None of which is proof. Nineteen-year-old wingers with record fees attached have arrived at the Bernabéu before and found that talent is only the entry fee. But the tone of this interview — unbothered by the money, delighted by a 5am phone call, quoting Drogba on surviving Mourinho — is as good a starting point as Madridistas could ask for. The first competitive test comes on Saturday at Espanyol; here are the kick-off time and TV details. Drogba’s advice starts applying then.
