This summer, Real Madrid overtook everyone, to everyone’s surprise, in the Yan Diomandé file. While the 19-year-old Ivorian international winger was courted by Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain, Casa Blanca took advantage of the reluctance of these two clubs to meet the financial demands of RB Leipzig to win the €140 million exchange bid (bonus included). After a short season in the Bundesliga (13 goals, 10 assists in 36 matches), the supersonic winger became the most expensive recruit in the history of Real Madrid.
Except that this XXL transfer was not really in Madrid’s pipeline. Upon his arrival, José Mourinho focused mainly on strengthening his defense and his midfield with the recruitment of Ibrahima Konaté, Denzel Dumfries, Marc Cucurella and Bernardo Silva. The Portuguese coach also returned to the progress of the Merengue transfer window in the second part of his interview given to the famous Spanish program El Chiringuito. The opportunity for him to explain that he had not requested any specific recruit like Diomandé.
“Dumfries and Konaté do not have the profile that makes people dream”…
“No, I didn’t ask anyone. I arrived without asking anyone, analyzing the squad carefully and knowing clearly what I would like to see happen. I wanted to arrive knowing a lot of things, but acting as if I knew nothing. I knew what I wanted, but I wanted to know what the club thought about it. And I noticed a great convergence of views between our respective ideas. Look at the first players we recruited: Dumfries and Konaté, with all due respect to these two great players, they do not have the profile that makes people dream and that makes social networks explode, but we needed it”he confided, before continuing.
“We have always followed this approach: without asking anything, things fell into place naturally. In this context, (Diomandé), a fast, aggressive winger capable of playing on both wings, it’s not very easy, it’s difficult. Furthermore, he is a young player on the rise, who still has many years ahead of him at Real Madrid, when this opportunity presented itself. I don’t want to analyze whether it’s 120, 80, 40 or 20 million euros. I analyze the player’s profile, what he can bring to my team, and in that sense, I said: “Yes, I want him”. Whether it’s €120 or €80 million… that no longer concerns me. » And Florentino Pérez did not hesitate to sign the biggest check of his life as president of Real Madrid.
