Inside how a U.S. academy helped mold World Cup ph...

Inside how a U.S. academy helped mold World Cup phenom Yan Diomande20mTom HamiltonTransfer rumors, news: Man United to move for West Ham midfielder10hESPNGab Marcotti's best XI of World Cup group stage: Messi, Mbappé and who else?

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Some would have heard of Yan Diomande before they saw him play a full match. Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool have been frequently mentioned as suitors alongside nine-figure transfer fees, with news Sunday that he's leaning towards PSG. All the while, in his own understated way, as the hype grows, Diomande, 19, just goes about his business, ruining defenders and thrilling those watching.

He has been one of the breakout stars of the past season, but he only played top-flight football for the first time 15 months ago. One of his close friends and former roommates James Eliuda at the private sports training and educational institution DME Academy in Daytona Beach has been fully aware for a while of the man they call "Dio."Diomande was one of several African soccer players who had been recommended to the DME Academy and opted to take spots in their program.

"We got sent a video of him from the under-17 AFCON and the minute you watched it, you thought, 'Oh well, this is going to be fun,'" Todd Eason, director of soccer at DME from 2021 to 20224, tells ESPN.Diomande arrived at DME in mid-September in 2022 from his home in the Ivory Coast. Eliuda had already been there a week by the time Diomande arrived.

He met his roommate at reception, helped him with his bags up the steps and showed him to their room.There was a language barrier to navigate. Diomande spoke French; Eliuda spoke Arabic.

"I could understand English but didn't have the confidence to talk it. He could understand a couple of words, but that was it. So we used very basic sign language.

Like miming if you wanted to eat, or 'how are you?' Thumbs-up and things like that. Obviously, football.

When we got into the room, he mimed that he wanted me to take a photo of him. He later explained that it was to let his mum he'd arrived OK."After the photo, some students from Puerto Rico knocked on the door and asked if they were up for kicking a ball about.

Eliuda thought Diomande would prefer just to sleep, but he was adamant they go and play."I thought he'd be tired after his long flight, but then he picked up the ball," Eliuda says. "He was doing things different to anything I'd ever seen.

He started juggling the ball on his shoulders, he was doing crazy stuff already."The two learned English from language app Duolingo, and at school alongside their football sessions. Eliuda is a central midfielder, so he had Diomande running up and down the wings next to him.

Training boiled over. "He'd get mad in training sometimes, we got tired, and you'd end up kicking each other a little bit. He'd get mad, so he'd get the ball off the goalkeeper and just start dribbling around everyone.

You try to be aggressive to get it back, but he's quicker and stronger than me."Eason had a translator with him, but Diomande soon took over the duties, translating Eason's advice in training into French for the two Senegalese players. "That's when I realized how intelligent he was as language wasn't needed for his understanding of the game," Eason says."

He was a nervous lad though at the start, and struggled sometimes to control his emotions. He was always concerned about his mum and home, and he took time to adapt to the culture here." Diomande struggled with the different food, and also differences in manners and customs.

"He did make a family at DME though with his friends."Eason remembers Diomande's loyalty. "The Senegalese lads picked on James a little bit, so in a training session, Dio went after the two of them to shut them up.

He was so protective of his friends a