After one season
RB Leipzig set to pocket €110m – Yan Diomande and the biggest profits in football history
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Yan Diomande’s imminent move to Real Madrid will be a significant deal for several reasons. The reported €130 million fee is not only the highest fee ever paid for an African player, but is also the biggest fee the LaLiga giants have ever paid for a player, surpassing the €127m paid for Jude Bellingham in 2023. And, unsurprisingly, it ranks first in terms of the biggest fees RB Leipzig have received for one of their players.
For any football fan that has enjoyed watching Diomande run the wings in the Bundesliga last season or for the Ivory Coast at the 2026 World Cup, such a significant fee may seem like a fair price for one of football’s most exciting young players. But what’s also notable about the move is the sheer scale of the profit Leipzig are making on the young winger just one season after buying him. After joining the club from Spanish side Leganés for €20m last summer, it now means that Leipzig are set to profit by €110m on Diomande in a little over 12 months.
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That, unsurprisingly, makes Diomande’s sale one of the biggest profits in the history of football, according to Transfermarkt data. The only player that has earned his selling club a larger profit in the space of one season was Ousmane Dembéle, who departed Borussia Dortmund for Barcelona for a transfer profit of €113m. Diomande’s deal places him second on the list, ahead of Enzo Fernández, who joined Benfica in 2022 for €44.3m then departed the club in the same season to join Chelsea for a further €77m.
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Y. Diomande
Right Winger
RB Leipzig
36
13
10
Rounding up the top five are two other players that made big-money moves to the Premier League. Hugo Ekitiké completed a permanent move to Eintracht Frankfurt in the 24/25 season for €31.5m, only to then join Liverpool 12 months later for an extra €64m. And Rasmus Højlund, who proved to be an infamous flop at Old Trafford, joined Man Utd for just under €79.9m, one season after making the move to Atalanta for €21m.
In sixth place is Victor Osimhen, who earned French side Lille an impressive profit of €57m after just one season with the Ligue 1 club. After joining from Belgian club Charleroi for €22.4m, he was then sold to Napoli for €78.9m. That puts the Nigerian striker just above another infamous signing in former Tottenham midfielder Tanguy Ndombélé, who earned Lyon a €54m transfer profit after joining the French side from Amiens for just €8m 12 months prior.
However, not all of the players in the top 10 are cautionary tales. Former Ballon d’Or winner and current world champion Rodri earned Atlético Madrid a profit of €50m after joining them for €20m from Villarreal, only to then move to Man City the following season for €70m. Equally, while Brighton earned a €47m mark-up on Marc Cucurella after he joined the club for just €18m and then departed to Chelsea for €65.3m, few fans of the Stamford Bridge club would begrudge the fee they ended up paying for the left-back.
In terms of tenth-placed Mateus Fernandes, the jury is most likely still out. The midfielder raised a number of eyebrows when he swapped Southampton for West Ham for €52.3m last season, then led to even more surprised looks when Tottenham signed him this summer for €99m. The Hammers certainly made their money back, but whether the 22-year-old talent will prove to be worth that fee in North London remains to be seen.
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