He was 12 years old when he crossed into Europe. On the immigration documents, he appeared as the son of Hamed Mamadou Traoré, his coach, and of a woman named Marina Edwige Carine Teher. Neither of them knew him. He also appeared as the brother of Hamed Junior Traoré, now a player for Olympique de Marseille. There was no blood relation between them.
Italian prosecutors identified Amad Diallo, currently a Manchester United forward and an Ivory Coast star, as one of the African minors brought in irregularly through a network dedicated to falsifying identities. The so-called Operation Baby Elephant, launched in 2015 and concluded in 2017 with the arrest of several people involved, determined that at least five minors were smuggled into the Reggio Emilia region by five adults, including Traoré himself. The minors arrived with altered documents that changed their identities and family relationships.
Diallo has never spoken publicly about how he arrived in Europe or about the origins of his biological family, whose whereabouts remain unknown. After coming of age, he removed the surname Traoré from his legal identity. He is now 23 years old, was signed by Manchester United in 2021 for 28 million euros, and has just scored the goal that gave Ivory Coast victory over Ecuador at the 2026 World Cup. His personal case history remains open, without an answer.