As soon as Real Madrid knew they were not going to be able to sign Michael Olise from Bayern Munich this summer transfer window despite all the mutual interest, they immediately pivoted to signing the second best winger in the Bundesliga. And no, it's not Luis Diaz but rather 19 year old RB Leipzig star Yan Diomande, with Fabrizio Romano reporting an agreement between Real and Leipzig for a transfer above 100 million euros.
While other transfer reporters decided to quarrel with Fabrizio over the nature of his reporting and state that nothing has been made official yet, Romano doubled down, stating that it is a handshake agreement between clubs and will be formally officially once Leipzig sign a replacement.
That replacement has not come yet, but Fabrizio knows he has been vindicated by a simple, official move RB Leipzig did make today. Leipzig are playing a friendly against German 3rd league side Verl this weekend, and they left Yan Diomande out of both the starting lineup and the matchday squad all together.
Yan Diomande looks like he's coming
There are, of course, other reasons why a player might not be in the squad, but the most sensible one here, without any known injury to Leipzig's best player, is the impending transfer to Real Madrid. It is a strong why of Leipzig saying they do not want to risk this deal falling through and losing potentially 120 million euros - or, maybe worse yet, antagonizing a good relationship with the biggest club in the world by watching Diomande suffer an injury.
As Fabrizio Romano continues to grow in popularity and dominate the football transfer sphere with more scoops and quicker scoops than virtually every other journalist, jealousy and agendas begin to play in a way that preys on fans' natural and important instincts to be skeptical of someone like Romano. But it looks like, in this case, he is 100 percent right on about Diomande, and it would be a huge upset if this deal fell through.
Of course, dealing with the bonuses and other details of the deal with Roc Nation was not easy for either Liverpool or PSG, hence part of the reason why both elite clubs fell out of the deal. However, Diomande may have been waiting for Real Madrid all along, and PSG did not leave the deal until Diomande made it clear he preferred Madrid. So from a Madrid perspective, there is nothing to worry about here, and Diomande's path is all the more important with Vinicius Junior getting baited by Arsenal.
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