Left out of the ten nominees for the 2026 African Player of the Year award, Yan Diomande is still in the hunt for the best young player trophy. The Real Madrid and Ivory Coast winger will have to contend with two Leverkusen players.
Yan Diomande is not on the list of ten nominees for the 2026 African Player of the Year award. The 19-year-old’s name does not appear among the contenders unveiled, according to German outlet rblive.de.
The Real Madrid and Ivory Coast national team winger is nevertheless still in the running for another honour. He is nominated for the African best young player award, where he will notably have to contend with two Bayer Leverkusen players, Ibrahim Maza (Algeria) and Christian Kofane (Cameroon).
A €125m departure from Leipzig
The player left RB Leipzig last summer to join Real Madrid for €125m, according to rblive.de.
Last season with Leipzig, he scored 13 goals and provided 10 assists in 36 matches in all competitions, according to the same source.
At Madrid, he has already scored 4 goals, rblive.de reports. He also took part in the 2026 World Cup with Ivory Coast.
Competition from two Leverkusen players
In the race for the best young player trophy, Algerian Ibrahim Maza and Cameroonian Christian Kofane, again according to rblive.de, wear the colours of Bayer Leverkusen. The German club therefore has two nominees in this category against Diomande.
The list of contenders does not stop there. Hamza Abdelkarim features with FC Barcelona, Ayoub Bouaddi with Manchester City, Ibrahim Mbaye with Aston Villa and Christ Inao Oulaï with AC Fiorentina, again according to rblive.de.
The German outlet gives no reason for Diomande’s absence from the ten nominees for the African Player of the Year award.
The date: 2 December in Lagos
The winners will be announced on 2 December at the CAF Awards ceremony in Lagos, rblive.de indicates.
The outlet does not detail the statistics of the other nominees and does not specify who the voters are.