Football is a beautiful game. Not just the goals and the noise of packed stadiums or drama in 90 minutes of play but the human stories behind every player. Some stories make us smile and some inspire us while others leave us speechless because the emotions are so raw that they are so deep they reach well beyond the sport itself. That was exactly the case after Ivory Coast’s bitter World Cup defeat to Germany. Newspapers focused on Germany’s qualification and Ivory Coast’s heartbreak but a story had been ignored everywhere around the world until it was just there and had touched millions of people. It was a 19-year-old Yan Diomande and a very moving letter he wrote to his younger sister Roxanne, who died last year at the age of 15 after her drink was allegedly spiked. The letter was not a cry for sympathy or attention. It was a grieving brother writing to the one he missed most. Diomande said in those words that now his goal and every run he makes and every success he has is for her. “Everything I do on a football pitch,” he wrote. At once one of football’s brightest young talents became much more relatable— a brother with unimaginable grief as he goes about living out a dream.
To make the story even more powerful is Roxanne believed in him long before the football world did. Diomande is now one of Europe’s most exciting young attackers but he was born in a very desperate situation. He was brought up in a humble society in which chances of success were scarce and the dream of being a professional footballer was just assumed for him. At one time there were about 25 people in one room and privacy was only a dream. Roxanne never stopped thinking that her brother was destined for greatness. Football wasn’t always kind to him. There were so many disappointments before RB Leipzig and so many before the Bundesliga and the World Cup. He had tried out, had no chance of being offered, got rejected after rejection after rejection and had no chance at a place in the game. Many clubs in England wanted to sign him but none of them brought him to reserve teams. Imagine hearing again and again that you are not good enough when you are chasing that one dream that matters to you. Diomande even began to lose faith. But Roxanne refused to let him surrender every time doubt entered his mind. When scouts told her no, she said yes. When clubs looked elsewhere, she still saw a future superstar. She carried his dream when he could not carry it himself.
That’s why the most emotional part of Diomande’s letter is not just pain but gratitude. In every line it seems to say thank you to the sister who believed when no one else did. The grief is almost unbearable in the descriptions of life after her death. “I don’t feel anything now. I’m not even human. Since you died, I'm just blank." There is no attempt to avoid clichés or protect his image. It is just a young man who is still suffering a loss that words can hardly help but be very, very clear. But he’s not letting that pain consume him, Diomande has made it something to be motivated by. “I don’t even look at it like a game. I look at it like a stage. This is my chance to show the world what you saw in me." And those words express the tale of his rise better than statistics. Every match has become a tribute. Each performance is a gift to the person who at one point thought he could rise to the top. While fans see a fearless winger attacking defenders, Diomande sees a promise he is trying to keep.
And what a rise it has been. The teenager came to Europe with RB Leipzig and scored 12 goals in his first Bundesliga season and is one of the most fascinating young players in the world. His pace, dribbling ability and fearlessness have been noticed by clubs around Europe. Paris Saint-Germain are among those tracking his progress. In Ivory Coast, his fans consider him the successor to Didier Drogba and the leader of the young generation who will take the club to new heights. But in his letter you can see that transfer rumours and fame and high expectations are not what he wants. What drives him is a promise to Roxanne. A promise that every goal, every victory and every milestone will carry her memory with it. Germany won the game against Ivory Coast but Yan Diomande’s story served to remind the world of the importance of football. Each superstar is a journey. Every celebration is a struggle. And behind one of football’s brightest young talents is a brother who is still trying to make his little sister proud. The boy who once shared a room with 25 people and nearly lost faith in his dream is now being chased by some of the biggest clubs in world football. It is the future that he once felt was impossible, and Roxanne is there with him every step of the way.
