RB Leipzig winger Yan Diomande was named Bundesliga rookie of the year for the 2025/26 season after a solid campaign with Die Roten Bullen that saw him finish with 13 goals and 10 assists from a total of 36 appearances across all competitions.
Diomande’s numbers are all the more impressive when factoring in the time he spent away from the club for the African Cup of Nations in the winter with the Ivory Coast national team — even it he really only missed one match during that span for Leipzig, it’s
still a task to reintegrate with the club after time away with a national team in a different part of the world and a different climate.
In winning the rookie of the year award, Diomande, who is a highly sought after transfer target heading into this summer, takes the place of Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise, who won the accolade after his 12 goals and 15 assists in his first Bundesliga campaign with the German Rekordmeister. Naturally, comparisons between the two players have been drawn much like Lennart Karl has been likened to a similar playing style and frame as Lionel Messi — it’s almost human instinct to relate similar playing styles as a football fan despite them all being separate individuals.
As such, when Diomande was recently asked about whether or not he is looking up to Olise after succeeding him as the Bundesliga’s rookie of the year, he said that he’s just taking what he can from what he sees while remaining his own type of player. “I’m not [trying to learn from Olise]. I have a big respect for him, but I’m not looking at him. I’m looking at him as a player, I want to do something like him, but I’m watching him on TV when Bayern are playing…like, I watch Harry Kane, or Luis Díaz, because they’re top players. So I’m learning something from them, but it’s not feeling like I’m going only to my TV to watch him play,” the winger recently told ESPN (via @iMiaSanMia).
Diomande has been linked with a potential move to Bayern along with a plethora of other top clubs across Europe as he’s expressed an openness to leaving Leipzig this summer. Both Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain have showed heavy interest as of late, though Sky Sport’s Florian Plettenberg has reported that Leipzig’s Oliver Mintzlaff, Jürgen Klopp, and Marcel Schäfer are remaining hopeful that their winger will sign a new deal with the club.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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