Real Madrid are signing 19-year-old winger Yan Diomande from RB Leipzig for more than £100 million, a deal that makes him the most expensive African player in history and the Spanish giants' expected new record signing (BBC Sport).

ESPN, reporting two days earlier, put the fee at €135 million and said the deal was expected to be finalised within hours (ESPN). Spanish newspaper Marca reported that Diomande passed his medical on 27 July and had decided to join Madrid (Marca). Real Madrid's own website has yet to publish any announcement.

The fee is staggering on its own. The story behind it is barely believable.

Less than 18 months ago, Diomande was almost completely unknown — a name on scouting reports and nothing more, according to the BBC. He had come through DME Academy in Florida, a school far better known for producing basketball players than footballers. He went on trial at Chelsea, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Rangers and Olympiacos. Not one of them signed him.

Leganés, a modest club in Madrid's southern suburbs, eventually took the chance. Diomande played ten games in Spain's top flight for them — that's all it took for his value to climb. RB Leipzig, the German club famous for spotting talent early, signed him for €20 million. A year later, they are selling him for more than five times that amount — a new record sale for the club (BBC Sport).

His first full season in Germany delivered 13 goals and 10 assists across all competitions. He built a particularly sharp understanding with right-back Ridle Baku down Leipzig's flank. Then came the World Cup, where he represented Ivory Coast and was named Man of the Match in at least one game, drawing Real Madrid's attention by late June (Marca).

Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain also showed interest. Leipzig had planned to keep Diomande for another year, but the demand was too high to resist.

On the pitch, Diomande is a right-footed winger — a player who attacks down the side of the pitch, usually hugging the touchline. Leganés played him on the left, cutting inside onto his stronger foot. Leipzig used him on the right. He filled both wing positions for Ivory Coast at the World Cup. That flexibility is part of the appeal.

What makes this stand out is the speed of the rise. A player rejected by five clubs in three countries, signed for nothing, sold for €20 million after ten league appearances, and now headed to the biggest club in the world for a nine-figure sum — all before his twentieth birthday. AS, another Spanish newspaper, ran a profile of Diomande tracing his path from poverty and loneliness to this moment, built around a promise he made to his family (AS).

The transfer is part of José Mourinho's new project at the Bernabéu, as AS described it — "Mourinho's new Real Madrid" — and the paper called the deal the club's "great market coup" of the summer (AS). AS also reported that Diomande is unlikely to be the final arrival before the transfer window closes (AS). Yahoo Sports ranked him as Madrid's third-most-expensive signing ever, behind Eden Hazard and ahead of Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo (Yahoo Sports).

For a player nobody wanted, the company he's keeping now tells its own story.