Diomande vows to become world's best in tribute to sister who died aged 15

Yan Diomande has paid a deeply personal tribute to his late sister Roxane in a letter published by the Players’ Tribune, revealing the grief he carried through his breakthrough season and vowing to become the world’s best player in her memory.

Roxane died aged 15 after allegedly having a drink spiked, with the news reaching Diomande shortly after he made his La Liga debut for Leganés last year. The 19-year-old RB Leipzig winger wrote that he never received a full explanation for what happened and has chosen to channel the pain into his football.

“I never got any answers. I don’t know if I want to know why,” Diomande wrote. “I try to trust God’s plan. It’s all I can do. I don’t try to forget, because I know I won’t forget. All I can do is use the pain to work harder, and to do everything we dreamed about.”

The letter traces the siblings’ shared childhood in Abidjan, where Roxane was a constant source of belief during a period when Diomande faced repeated rejections from clubs across Europe. “They just kept taking me all around Europe, and everybody kept saying no,” he wrote. “My visa was up. My dream was over. They sent me back to Africa, and we cried together. You were the one who never stopped believing. A few weeks later, I signed for Leganés and we cried different tears.”

Diomande also recalled Roxane’s conviction that he would one day surpass Cristiano Ronaldo — the player he grew up idolising — and made a direct promise to fulfil that prediction. “You always said that I could be better than Cristiano. If I see him there, I’ll tell him hello for you. I’m going to do what you predicted, I swear.”

The tribute was written just before Diomande travelled to North America for the World Cup with Ivory Coast. He impressed in the team’s Group E opener, a 1-0 victory over Ecuador that left them second in the group behind Germany on goal difference ahead of their meeting in Toronto.

“I wrote this because I can’t speak about it,” he added. “I wrote this because I want you to know that I will make sure that you live on. I will make sure that everybody knows your name. The whole world. Everything I do on a football pitch, it’s for you.”