A phone call. No preamble, no softening it: “Your sister is gone. Someone put something in her drink at a party and she never woke up.” That is how Yan Diomande, the 19-year-old Ivorian forward for RB Leipzig, learned of the death of Roxane, his 15-year-old younger sister, a little over a year ago.
Diomande told the whole story in a public letter titled “Dear Roxane”, published in The Players Tribune after his debut at the 2026 World Cup. In it, he carefully reconstructs the figure of a girl who, at 10 years old, was already acting as his informal agent, who accompanied him to unsuccessful trials at Bournemouth, Chelsea, Rangers and Crystal Palace, and who never stopped telling anyone who would listen that her brother would be the best footballer in the world. When Yan signed for Leganés, they both cried. Shortly afterward, Roxane died from a substance that someone put into her drink at a party.
After Ivory Coast’s 1-0 victory over Ecuador and after swapping shirts with Mbappé following his debut against Real Madrid, Diomande writes: “I will prove that you were right, or die trying.”