Around the time when our beloved Ivory Coast-born Mohamed Diomande, who was born on the 30th of October in 2001, was still learning about the cruel and unforgiving practicalities of professional football at the Right to Dream Academy in Ghana, Celtic were probably hunting for a potential midfield prodigy. Not much is known about his time at the academy except that he clearly impressed someone to earn himself a ticket to European competition. However, as fate would have it, Diomande ended up plying his trade for FC Nordsjaelland in Denmark instead in January 2020, the poor lad.
At a towering 6ft (1.83m) and a reasonable 11st 11lb (75kg), Diomande made a somewhat quiet start to his time in Denmark, only making five cameo appearances in his debut 2019 - 2020 season. Apparently not one to let a slow start deter him, he doubled down on proving his mettle and popped up with three goals from 11 appearances in his follow-up 2020 - 2021 season. Not satisfied, he bossed the midfield a total of 25 times in the 2021 - 2022 season and repeated his three-goal stunt from the previous season.
Diomande then turned it up a notch in his 2022 - 2023 season by getting his name on the scoresheet five times from 32 appearances. Not a massive return by any means but enough to paint a picture of a fairly decent midfielder. He managed to feature 13 times in the 2023 - 2024 season before a peculiar event occurred.
A loan spell materialised with Scottish outfit Rangers in January 2024, much to the chagrin of snubbed Celtic devotees. What a pity. Diomande proved he could still knock the ball about in a different climate by managing to squeeze in 13 appearances and even nabbed a couple of goal contributions in his half-season loan, just enough to get noticed, but not enough to set the heather alight. The Ibrox mob certainly liked what they saw, because they decided to put down a princely sum of around £4.3m to see their number 10 jersey graced by Diomande on a permanent basis.
The midfielder did his best to look like he was worth the investment by notching two goals from 13 appearances in the 2023 - 2024 season. In the current 2024 - 2025 season he already has one goal from 13 appearances.
While most fans were still debating whether they had overpaid or not, the Ivorian had his eyes on more silverware. He made appearances in various cup competitions such as the League Cup 2024 - 2025 with one start and two substitute appearances, the Europa League during 2023 - 2024 with two starts and the Champions League Qualifiers in 2024 - 2025 with two starts. He even contributed a goal during his performances during the Europa League 2024 - 2025 season.
If only Diomande had strode out onto the hallowed turf of Paradise instead, eh? But dreams and reality seldom meet in football, and we're left with our thoughts about what might have been.
