How Diomande’s €110m profit pushed Osimhen down football’s all-time transfer rankings

Victor Osimhen’s move from Belgium to France and then Italy has long stood alone as African football’s most profitable transfer, Afrik-Foot reports.

His move from Lille to Napoli broke records, helped deliver Napoli’s first Serie A title in 33 years, and made him one of the most expensive African players ever. But the Super Eagles striker is now set to be overtaken in another remarkable transfer ranking.

Ivory Coast winger Yan Diomande will likely climb above Osimhen on the list of the biggest transfer profits in football history after Real Madrid agreed to sign him from RB Leipzig for a reported €130 million. The deal is expected to become the highest fee ever paid for an African player and also the biggest transfer in Real Madrid’s history, beating the €127 million the Spanish giants paid for Jude Bellingham in 2023.

The transfer will also hand Leipzig one of the most mouthwatering profits the game has ever seen after signing Diomande from Spanish club Leganés for €20 million only one year ago.

Diomande enjoyed a breakthrough campaign in Germany, producing 13 goals and 10 assists in 36 appearances across all competitions. His pace, dribbling and performances for Ivory Coast at the 2026 FIFA World Cup convinced Real Madrid to make him their latest marquee signing.

The numbers behind the transfer are extraordinary. After spending just €20 million to sign the winger last summer, Leipzig are now set to receive €130 million, giving the Bundesliga club a staggering €110 million profit in just over 12 months.

According to Transfermarkt data, only one player has ever generated a bigger one-season transfer profit. Borussia Dortmund earned an estimated €113 million when Ousmane Dembélé joined Barcelona in 2017 after arriving from Rennes just a year earlier.

Diomande now moves into second place on the all-time list, ahead of Enzo Fernández, whose transfer from Benfica to Chelsea generated around €77 million in profit after only one season in Portugal.

Osimhen moved to Germany to join Wolfsburg after impressing at the 2015 FIFA under-17 World Cup in Chile but struggled to nail a first-team spot with the Bundesliga outfit. After reviving his career on loan at Sporting Charleroi during the 2018-19 season, where he scored 20 goals in 36 matches, the Belgian club activated their €3.5 million purchase option from Wolfsburg before quickly selling him to Lille in August 2019.

Lille paid an initial €12 million, with performance-related bonuses taking the package to around €14-15 million. Charleroi also negotiated a 15% sell-on clause, a decision that later earned the Belgian club a major financial reward.

Osimhen needed only one season in Ligue 1 to become one of the hottest young strikers in Europe. He scored 18 goals in 38 appearances, was named Lille’s Player of the Season, picked up their Marc-Vivien Foé Prize, and earned a place in the Ligue 1 Team of the Season.

Napoli then completed a club-record move worth €70 million plus €10 million in bonuses in July 2020. The transfer also included goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis and three Napoli youth players, whose valuations later became the subject of financial investigations in Italy because of questions over their market value.

Despite those complications, Lille still made an estimated €57 million profit, placing Osimhen first among Africa’s biggest one-season transfer profits in football history.

The Nigerian striker went on to justify his huge transfer fee by scoring 76 goals for Napoli and leading the club to its first Serie A title in 33 years in 2023.