PSG ready to abandon Diomande deal as Liverpool and Arsenal handed major boost

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Robin Bairner | Chief Editor

Accredited football journalist and editor covering the game since 2006

PSG are ready to spark a Premier League transfer domino, including Liverpool and Arsenal, after making their stance on RB Leipzig winger Yan Diomande clear.

The two-time Champions League winners have been heavily linked with Ivory Coast international Diomande in recent months, and seemed to be leading the race to sign him.

However, in transformative news for both Liverpool and Arsenal, PSG are ready to drop their interest in the 19-year-old star, according to a report.

Current ETV

Yan Diomande

F (RL), M (L)

RB Leipzig

Yan Diomande

F (RL), M (L)

RB Leipzig

€36.8M

ETV Range

€33.1M - €40.4M

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PSG ready to give up on Diomande – report

PSG are ready to forget a move for Diomande this summer, according to Ivory Coast-based journalist Malick Traore.

“Due to the complexity of the deal (image rights…), PSG will pass on Yan Diomande,” he declared on X. “The new target of the European champions is Eli Kroupi.”

While Diomande remains prominent in the transfer headlines, his situation does indeed remain complicated. There is an ongoing dispute as to who represents him, with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation agency in a legal battle with Maxidel Management that has been taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Until this is cleared up, a deal will be difficult to progress.

Premier League rippled effect

The knock-on effects of PSG’s decision to pull out of a deal for Diomande will have ramifications across the Premier League:

Arsenal: While the Gunners’ hopes of signing Bradley Barcola from PSG are dashed by this decision, they could move on Diomande after missing out on Morgan Rogers, who will sign for Chelsea.

Bournemouth: The Cherries had hoped to retain Kroupi for another season, but this renewed interest means they face a battle to keep the most promising centre-forward in the Premier League.

Liverpool: Initially hot favourites to sign Diomande, their hopes of landing the Ivory Coast star have increased significantly following this development. While they have also been linked with Barcola, that deal would only ever have been possible if the RB Leipzig man had moved to Paris.

Will Diomande leave RB Leipzig?

But the real doubt is over whether Diomande can move at all, with his club determined to keep him and the bureaucratic battle raging in the background.

Fabrizio Romano continues to indicate a deal is very much on this summer.

“With Diomande, PSG have had an agreement with the player for three or four weeks,” he claims.

“Now it's on Paris Saint-Germain to complete the agreement with Leipzig. They remain the clear favourites, but I'm told more clubs are calling every day to see whether they can enter the race.

“Arsenal have done that in recent days and there are other clubs making enquiries behind the scenes. So now it's up to PSG to finish the job.”

Romano’s sources, which naturally remain anonymous, hold the key to determining how likely a move is. If these are agent-fed rumours, the goal is likely to keep their player in the spotlight while the issues behind the scenes are thrashed out. If these come from elsewhere, there is more of a prospect of an immediate move.

The agency dispute that threatens a deal

Any potential deal for Diomande, though, will have to clear an unusual hurdle, with a heated agency dispute threatening any move. This is not uniquely Liverpool’s problem; PSG and RB Leipzig also need the issue to be resolved in order to smooth a summer transfer.

It is a tangle that has been ongoing for months and involves American rapper Jay-Z and former Premier League footballer Max Gradel as its protagonists.

Diomande seemed to have teed himself up for a summer transfer when it was announced following the close of the winter window that he had changed agency to Roc Nation, founded by Jay-Z.

Jay-Z’s stable includes players such as Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior and Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli, but while Roc Nation’s website has the biography of the Ivory Coast international beside such players, there is a dispute as to who is legally allowed to represent him.

Maxidel Management, which was formed by former Leeds star Max Gradel, claims that the RB Leipzig star is still its player.

It announced a contract extension with the player via Instagram on 1 January and has since released a statement:

“It is therefore with great surprise that we are now discovering that an engagement may have been made in parallel with another agency, outside of any proper procedure and without respect for our contractual rights.

“In light of this situation, Maxidel Management will take all necessary measures to protect its rights and defend its interests through the appropriate legal channels.”

PSG seem to have had enough and are poised to drop their interest in the player; now it remains to be seen whether Arsenal or Liverpool move.

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Written by

Robin Bairner | Chief Editor

Robin Bairner is an eminent digital football journalist who has been writing about the sport for major global publishers since 2006, specialising in Ligue 1 and Scottish football. He has been chief editor of the FootballTransfers global edition since its launch in 2020. Previously Bairner had been a key member of the editorial team which helped Goal.com become the world’s biggest football website. He covered multiple major competitions as a correspondent for Goal including the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where he had the opportunity to work in Fortaleza. Among his highlights of the competition was Brazil’s quarter-final victory over Colombia.

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