Yan Diomande has been rumoured as a potential signing for Liverpool this summer(Image: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
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The only place where more chins are wagging about Yan Diomande than in Liverpool right now is Saxony, where RB Leipzig's 19-year-old star is dazzling the Bundesliga in a stellar debut season in Germany.
After joining from Spanish outfit CD Leganes last summer, Diomande has become a key player for the Red Bull club in their push to regain Champions League qualification through his dynamic style, dribbling ability and end product. Reviewing on a monitor how the teenager had dribbled his way past four players to score his side's opener against Eintracht Frankfurt earlier this month, Leipzig manager Ole Werner told Sky Germany his player was "unstoppable".
Werner said: "He's spectacular, sharp, and basically unstoppable. What's really special about him is that he doesn't really need fancy moves. He just relies on his timing, ball control, and speed.
"At 19, he has a good understanding of the game and knows where spaces open up. He can go far if he keeps working just as hard as he has been and doesn't get too big for his boots."
Diomande, who was playing high school football in Florida three years ago, first registered on the Liverpool rumour mill in December when Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg revealed that a host of top European clubs including the Reds had him "in their sights".
This came just days after the club's third all-time top goalscorer, Mohamed Salah, had given the explosive mixed zone interview that signalled the beginning of the end for his unforgettable Liverpool career in which he claimed to have been "thrown under the bus".
With Salah officially announcing his departure in March, the question of who even begins to replace the irreplaceable in terms of the Egyptian's impact on the team has become a more pressing one.
The great Mohamed Salah is leaving Liverpool at the end of the season (Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
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The expectation is on record signing Alexander Isak to replace Salah's goals, but the Reds' wide play has been one-dimensional all too often this season and the importance of an injection of energy and new ideas cannot be understated.
Likewise, if Rio Ngumoha continues his development, the England Under-19 international will no doubt be the recipient of many more opportunities next season, but it would lack prudence to put the pressure of replacing Liverpool's talisman on the shoulders of such a young talent, however bright.
For that reason, links with Diomande, which have intensified since German newspaper BILD claimed the Reds and Paris Saint-Germain have held talks with the winger's representatives, might also raise a few eyebrows.
Exercising caution
Diomande has only played 43 games at senior club level, along with nine caps for his native Ivory Coast. He signed his first professional contract in November 2024, making this just his first full season in the game, let alone the top five European leagues.
Nevertheless, it is safe to say his rise has been meteoric. Though Red Bull company chief Oliver Mintzlaff didn't hold back in his "advice" to club management to keep their rising star in recent comments, Diomande's manager, Werner, acknowledged that Leipzig's selling model means they already need to be on the lookout for a replacement.
Werner told Sky Germany: "[Losing star players] is an issue that affects every club in Germany except perhaps Bayern Munich.
"All other clubs have to make transfers time and again. It's also part of our DNA to develop young players and perhaps prepare them for even bigger clubs."
With an approach for Diomande at the very least, then, seemingly a strong possibility for Liverpool this summer, we took a look at some of his standout stats on FotMob to get a sense of what could have caught the Reds' attention.
For starters, and this should become apparent, Diomande is far more than an output merchant. His returns so far this season - 12 goals and eight assists in 30 Bundesliga appearances - are impressive, but they don't tell the full story and, at 19, he isn't someone Liverpool would be expecting to score 25 goals in his first season.
Still, Diomande's goalscoring nous is as good a place as any to look first. In the league, he has scored 12 goals from an xG (expected goals) of just 6.6, which immediately tells you something about Diomande's proficiency at finishing.
Top strikers typically overperform their xG, but Diomande's overperformance is striking. For context, Salah has slightly underperformed on his league xG, scoring seven goals from chances worth 7.91 xG, while Erling Haaland has scored 24 goals in the Premier League, only marginally outperforming his xG of 23.45.
Lamine Yamal offers a closer comparison in scoring 16 league goals from an xG of 12.81, but Diomande's outperformance exceeds even that of his Barcelona counterpart.
Without getting too carried away, it is worth saying that we are working with a tiny sample size as Diomande's career is still in its infancy, but this kind of form is exactly why sporting directors across Europe are sitting up and taking notice.
One thing working in Diomande's favour is his two-footedness. Of his 13 goals in all competitions for Leipzig this season, six have come from the Ivorian's right foot while seven were scored with his left.
As a player who predominantly features on the right wing for RB Leipzig and could be expected to slot into Salah's position if he were to sign for Liverpool, this is a major box ticked.
Diomande makes use of a range of finishes, usually looking to find the far corners (see his recent goal against Frankfurt) with a curled or blasted effort (Monchengladbach, April 11, especially for the latter), but he is equally capable of rounding or lofting the keeper when one-on-one - as demonstrated against Frankfurt in December or Augsburg in March.
All this combines into a finisher mature beyond his years, with similar technique to what Ngumoha's goals against Newcastle United and Fulham showed from the opposite flank.
Yan Diomande opens the scoring for RB Leipzig against Borussia Monchengladbach on April 11(Image: Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
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Diomande's post-shot xG (xGOT: expected goals based on the quality of the shot) of 10.99 reflects these early signs, suggesting his finishing has contributed to him scoring at least four more goals than expected (xG: 6.6).
He's not a volume shooter, averaging only 1.99 shots per 90 in the Bundesliga, but 24 of them (49%) have hit the target; in other words, while he isn't the main man on the end of chances for Leipzig, he gets into great positions when he does get the chance and is a potentially lethal finisher.
Creative fulcrum
Eight assists might not blow your socks off, but shows a balance to his game and the data suggests he could have had more had his teammates finished more of their chances.
Diomande's xA (expected assists) of 9.55 puts him in the top 3% of Bundesliga wingers and attacking midfielders, and with 0.65 big chances created per 90 he is inside the top 10% in that metric.
Given his role as his side's flair player, Diomande takes plenty of risks in his passing but still has an impressive 84.7% pass completion rate in the Bundesliga this season, with 75.8% of his 33 attempted long passes finding their target - astonishing numbers for a winger.
Yan Diomande moves to cross the ball against Union Berlin on April 24(Image: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
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His crossing success rate of 19.4% will need attention in terms of Diomande's development, but clever assists like the one he pulled off last weekend against Union Berlin - where his quick feet and vision in a tight space took three defenders out of the game - show great promise.
How Diomande gets into those positions, though, is where he shines the brightest. With 108 successful dribbles this season (Salah has 16), or 4.39 per 90, Diomande has completed the most dribbles in the Bundesliga this season.
This is in a league that counts the coveted Michael Olise among its stars, it's worth adding.
His dribble success rate of 60% puts him in the top 15% of players in his position in the Bundesliga, with Diomande - interestingly - also in the top 20% for touches per 90 (65.31) and the top 5% for touches in the opposition box per 90 (7.19).
Diomande is unafraid to pick up the ball in deep areas and run with it, and is already virtually unstoppable when bursting around the outside, traits which Liverpool have missed since the departure of Luis Diaz last summer.
He will even do this in more central areas of the pitch to devastating effect, as seen against Bayern Munich in January when he left Aleksandar Pavlovic and Dayot Upamecano scrambling behind him.
Still, only one player has been dispossessed more than Diomande in the Bundesliga this season (Union Berlin's Ilyas Ansah), indicating another area that still needs development.
This is something that is likely to come with experience. For such a creative and aggressive dribbler, it stands out that Diomande is in the bottom 50% for fouls won among players in his position in the Bundesliga - if he can start using his body to draw fouls like Salah does, losing the ball will become less likely to lead to turnovers and potential counter-attacks.
The mentality to succeed
Importantly, if Liverpool are to return to something approaching the high-octane style of defending from the front that led the club back to the top, Diomande's work off the ball has drawn special praise from his manager - with pressing a central part of RB Leipzig's identity.
Werner told Sky Germany: "He often gets past his opponents without any tricks, simply because he's so dynamic. But what's even more important to me is that he works for the team and is very good at counter-pressing.
"It's a matter of attitude, and he demonstrates that."
This, too, is reflected in Diomande's numbers. He is in the top 10% of Bundesliga players in his position for recoveries, duels won and possession won in the final third per 90, demonstrating more than anything his work rate and intensity.
Diomande is just as happy to track back and support defenders as he is to aggressively press the opposition - promising he'd make for an instant hit at Anfield.
In short, Diomande's stats thoroughly back up the high praise he has received and the envious glances Leipzig are drawing for the young man who has rapidly established himself as their most exciting - and, likely, most expensive - player.
Yan Diomande begins the dribble to make it 1-0 for RB Leipzig away to Eintracht Frankfurt on April 18(Image: Ralf Ibing - firo sportphoto/Getty Images)
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And this is where caution is required. Diomande, to the eye test and in terms of his goal contributions, is probably having a season most comparable to the one Ousmane Dembele had at Stade Rennais before his move to Borussia Dortmund.
This in itself should serve as a warning against jumping the gun. Though Dembele is the current Ballon d'Or holder and among the very best players in football now, for a while it appeared he would never reach his potential.
The move to Barcelona - to replace Neymar - which followed one season in Germany saw Dembele stricken with injury and the pressure of succeeding one of the greatest players in the world in his position.
But clubs are swooping for promising players at an ever younger age with the rise of data analytics, and with PSG circling, Olise almost certainly out of reach and Salah planning his next move, it may be now or never for Liverpool.
One option to bring down Red Bull's asking price, suggested as a possibility by BILD, could be to sign Diomande this summer but allow him to stay in Germany for one more season - but supporters would surely balk at such a suggestion given the necessity of strengthening the position in the here and now.
A fee of £87million - which has been reported as RB Leipzig's minimum demand to sell him this summer - would put pressure on any young player, but Diomande's comments suggest a laser-focused mentality and a desire to push himself to the very top.
Speaking to the Bundesliga's official website after scoring his first career hat-trick against Frankfurt in December, Diomande made plain his dedication to constant improvement.
He said: "[The hat-trick] is a source of pride. Even though I am right-footed, I scored with my left. That shows that I am progressing and that I must not stop. I must keep working, keep improving, and score even more goals.
"My style is explosive, fast, and physically strong. Quick, agile, and also a finisher. I know I am not yet a perfect finisher, but I am only 19. With time, it will come – and I will become a killer in front of goal."
With Salah's departure, Liverpool will also be losing the Egypt captain's steel and drive - his determination sets the example to younger players that you can always improve your game.
If Diomande were to come in, it would be unfair to expect him to fill that role immediately, but his quality, his work rate and his ambition suggest he could provide a similar single-mindedness that has been all too lacking from the Reds' attack in recent months.
Coupled with the fact he - or at least his father, judging by recent comments - grew up a Liverpool fan, the Reds could be nailing down some crucial intangibles along with the quality required if they are to bring in Diomande.
Even if the Ivorian took time to adapt to the Premier League, his running power and dribbling ability, coupled with a genuine drive to play for the shirt, would give Liverpool something they simply haven't had for long stretches of this season.
All in all, signing Yan Diomande would represent a risk - but one worth taking.