What did we know about Amad Traorè when he left Atalanta for 26 million euros?
We knew that he was considered a phenomenon at a youth level, who seemed to be moving at a different speed compared to his peers.
We knew that he was considered even stronger than his brother, Hamed Traorè, at that time one of the most technical players in the Italian championship. «The real crack was Amad», said his first Italian coach at Boca Barco.
We knew he had scored a few minutes after his debut in Serie A. A goal against Udinese with a nice left-footed shot straight for forehand. We knew he was the first 2002 player to score in Serie A.
All these things we knew did not seem sufficient to justify the outlay of 25 million euros (plus possibly 15 in bonuses) by Manchester United, for this nineteen-year-old of whom we had just glimpsed some kind of talent.
It seemed like yet another crazy expense by Manchester United, millions given to Atalanta who at that moment managed to make capital gains even on players they didn’t use and whose value was unclear.
For all these years, to tell the truth, we have continued to think the same thing. Even though he was young and still had to be done, we were ready to express our definitive opinion: another rip-off from Atalanta in a championship in which they are less clever than us. We thought we would talk about Amad Traorè only because of that sad story that saw him forced to change his name to Amad Diallo. Hamed Traorè, who was able to keep the original surname, also seemed like the original talent.
In 2015 the two arrived in Emilia Romagna from the Ivory Coast to play football. They were 13 and 15 years old and were already the strongest of all. One went to Empoli, the other to Atalanta. Only in 2020 did we discover, with an investigation by the Parma prosecutor’s office, that the two had arrived in Italy carrying false documents and that they were not really brothers.
Yet in specialized circles there were still rumors that it was a phenomenon. «He was the best player in the best youth sector in Italy. Everyone wanted him,” said a Manchester United scout.
Diallo has started to move around on loan at United, the least of the problems of a club with a thousand problems. Too strong to play in the Under 23s – where he scored penalties with the spoon – not strong enough to play in the first team. Coaches kept changing and he still wasn’t considered good enough to play. During the pandemic he scored a strange header against Milan, becoming the youngest non-British goalscorer in the club’s history. Diallo seemed to confirm that precocity is not necessarily proportional to talent. He had played a good season at Sunderland, in the Championship, which however didn’t say much about his chances in the Premier League. Erik ten Hag didn’t see much of him. In the summer of 2023 he sent him to a camp organized by the Manchester United Academy to evaluate whether he could be useful to the team or it would be better to give him away for yet another loan. The doubts are resolved by the rupture of the meniscus: Diallo remains to heal, and does not play. In a team that continued to mangle the talent of its wingers – Sancho, Martial, Greenwood, Rashford – what could Amad Diallo offer?
He touched the ball well, he was physically strong, with that low center of gravity, speed and stability in his movements and twists. He had good passing times. But to play attacking winger for Manchester United it’s not enough to be strong, you have to be decisive, you have to produce. There is no potential talent, there are no technical projects, there is no patience.
In the second part of last season he began to show signs of his talent. In the last few games, after the horrendous defeat against Crystal Palace, he has been started every now and then. In May he played a good match against Newcastle. He moves well, he doesn’t make wrong choices, he seems to be gaining courage. He serves the assist to make it 1-0, loses the ball on which Newcastle scores the 1-1 and then scores the opening goal with an action he had already tried and tried again, a first-time shot on a ball that was spit out from the area after a corner kick. «In the last games of last season he played well. This must be his season,” Ten Hag said in the summer. The club bet on him, selling Sancho (who certainly had a bigger market). After a great match in November against PAOK, in which he scored a brace, Diallo finally became a starter. He scored the first goal with his header, deflecting the ball to the far post – a reference to Messi’s header in the Champions League final, against United? But it’s the second goal that Diallo talks about. The tenacity with which he recovers the ball and then advances, without being knocked down, without settling for a foul, to shoot with sensational quality. “The second goal has everything that Amad Diallo is,” commented Ruud van Nistelrooy; «Every day he comes to me at training and wants to improve his finishing, his crossing, he tells me things like: “How can I improve my header?”».
Van Nistelrooy is the first coach to make him a regular starter, and when Ruben Amorim arrived he found an extra starter and also resolved his doubts regarding the role. If all the attacking wingers fail at Manchester United, we might as well move Diallo back a few metres. As a full-back/winger, Diallo can fill a gap in the squad.Red Devils” – unless you consider Dalot a Manchester United player. A role in which more discipline and application is required, which however goes well with Diallo’s mentality, who makes all the recoveries, all the tackles, all the duels that are required of him. At the same time he can afford not to worry about producing much from an offensive point of view. In any case, 81 seconds into Amorim’s first game against Ipswich Diallo provided an assist for Rashford. Just to make it clear how things would have been, that he would have become more and more influential, even starting from further back. In that match Diallo was the player on his team most involved in dangerous actions, and the one who advanced the ball the most.
The reception methods and areas change, becoming less central and wider. He is forced to play less with his back to goal and to target the man more often starting from the outside. The meters to cover up front are not a problem for him. With his foot inverted he can always play facing the center of the pitch. For opposing defenses it is a complex variable to deal with. It’s as if Manchester United were playing with an extra attacking player.
On Sunday Amad Diallo decided the Manchester derby, one that risks becoming significant, or at least that’s what those on the red side of the city hope for. The moment of the definitive sinking of Guardiola’s City, and the turning point for Amorim’s Manchester United. It was certainly the match of Amad Diallo’s consecration, who played in the offensive trident and managed to turn the score around with two great actions.
In the 85th minute, as the match was heading towards a very boring 1-0 victory for City, he read an unfortunate back pass from Nunes first of all. He recovered the ball and was fouled by the same player who had missed the pass. Three minutes later, he cut again in the same area. The image is impressive. All the players on the pitch are still, while Lisandro Martinez keeps the ball between his feet with the look of someone who doesn’t want to do anything about it. Diallo is the only player who makes a movement, as if following a vital instinct that does not exist for all the players on the pitch. He cuts from right to left and Martinez serves him on the move. The ball is a bit long, it falls a meter from Ederson on the way out, and he has a half-genial shot, controlling it with the outside, raising his leg, and dribbling past the goalkeeper. Then he has the coolness and coordination to put the ball that rises into the goal with the plate. A goal with a dizzying difficulty coefficient.
As Barney Ronay wrote on the Guardian: “Diallo simply refused to give up and changed the course of the Manchester derby.” Beyond his technical qualities, the strength and precision with which he carries the ball and kicks, Diallo amazes with this great energy that he manages to bring to the pitch, reviving a team that at times tends dangerously towards ataraxia.
His contract expires at the end of the season but Manchester United have an option to extend him for another season. «I am happy to play for this club. I want to stay here for a long, long time and make history,” he said.
source ultimoumo.com
