Not many Ivorians made it to The Linc…sorry, Philadelphia Stadium on Sunday evening, but those who did will never forget it as they witnessed a dramatic 1-0 win over Ecuador, a victory that will almost certainly see Ivory Coast through to their first ever World Cup knockout game later this month.And while they were few in number, they certainly made their mark. None more so than Yan Diomande, who has been described as “in demand” in almost every transfer round-up written this year on the basis of his excellent “rookie” campaign for RB Leipzig.Before some of you get angry with me for going native after just 72 hours in the United States, the Bundesliga calls new players rookies too, apparently, and it made Diomande “rookie of the year” for the season just finished. It was hardly a shock; he had already won two “rookie of the month” prizes and was the German top flight’s player of the month, vets and all, in April.To be honest, his man-of-the-match display on his World Cup debut should not have come as a shock, either, as he has been on a rocket to the stars ever since he arrived in Florida from Abidjan in 2022.He did not spend long playing for Yulee High School’s team, as the talent-spotters at Daytona Beach’s private sports school DME Academy saw him play and that was that. One year and one national title later, he was being linked with a move to Europe. Glasgow Rangers may want to look away now, as they had him on trial in October 2023.A move came in 2024 when he signed for the Spanish club Leganes. He was only passing through, though, as RB Leipzig, a club with a reputation for spotting a player, triggered his €20million ($23m; £17.3m) release clause last summer and brought him to Germany.Yan Diomande sprints away from Ecuador’s Piero Hincapie (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)Well, it now appears that RB Leipzig fans will only have that rookie season to remember as he has been linked with Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and every other big club with a brain. Liverpool fans believe they are at the front of the queue, which is not an unreasonable take when you consider the fact that he professed his love for the club on his TikTok account last November.That was a rare misstep for the youngster, as he had to quickly placate RB Leipzig fans by saying Liverpool was actually his dad’s club and he was in no rush to leave. That was eight months ago — an eternity on Planet Diomande. He is off and everyone knows it… but where?One man who might know the answer to that question was in Philadelphia for Diomande’s introduction to the world: Jay-Z, the rapper-turned-businessman who founded Roc Nation Sports, the talent agency Diomande has recently joined.And what a night it was for Jay-Z to see the company’s new signing, as Diomande took Ecuador’s very highly-rated defence to pieces, in front of 68,000 Ecuador fans and a global TV audience of hundreds of millions. What we all witnessed was something very special.Jay-Z (right) greets his Roc Nation client Yan Diomande prior to kick off (Mauro Pimentel/AFP via Getty Images)The numbers do a pretty good job of explaining the story.He completed 41 of 51 passes, with five considered “key” passes. He made one “big chance” and several smaller ones, and he was four from six when it came to “successful dribbles”. That last one seems a little ungenerous as I am sure he beat Arsenal’s usually very dependable left-back Piero Hincapie that many times in the first half alone.If there was a shock in Diomande’s performance in South Philly, it is that he swapped wings in the second half to attack Ecuador right-back Alan Franco. Hincapie’s relief was Franco’s regret. He was hooked after the hour mark, as Diomande was starting to make him lost frazzled, too.But, if you missed this game, the numbers cannot tell you how Diomande three times burst past Hincapie from a standing start in the first half, and twice wriggled past Ecuador’s tough tacklers, including Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo, in the second half to create chances for himself and his team-mates.The only thing missing, of course, was a goal. And as the clock reached 90 minutes, it looked like we were set for our first goalless encounter of this World Cup.But Ivorian centre-back Wilfried Singo, who had just been shifted to right-back, had other ideas, surging from the halfway line to the edge of Ecuador’s box and playing a perfectly-weighted pass to Amad Diallo. The Manchester United midfielder was a second-half substitute in this game but has probably earned a start against Germany next Saturday; his first-time finish was exquisite.Ecuador do not concede many goals — or lose many matches, given they were on a 19-game unbeaten run — but they were second best in Philadelphia.Diallo’s goal gave Ivory Coast their first World Cup win over South American opposition, having lost group-stage games to Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, respectively, in their three previous appearances in this competition in 2006, 2010 and 2014.Those teams were no mugs. They had Didier Drogba, Yaya and Kolo Toure, and a host of other stars from big-league clubs. But, for whatever reason, they could not get over the group-stage hump at World Cups. And then there was a post-Drogba drop-off, as the team failed to qualify for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.But something is certainly stirring in the West African country again.Amad Diallo and his Ivory Coast team-mates celebrate their late win (Al Bello/Getty Images)It was a slight surprise when they won the AFCON in 2023, as they tried their best not to get out of the group stage — losing their second and third games — and then needed penalties to beat Senegal in the round of 16 and extra time to squeeze beyond Mali in the quarters. But, having found their feet, the hosts beat DR Congo and Nigeria to win their third African title.Last year’s AFCON did not go quite so well, as they lost to Egypt in the quarter-finals (a certain Mo Salah scored the winner), but they strolled through the World Cup qualifiers and even beat France in a friendly last month. They are good.Yan Diomande takes a breather late on (Mauro Pimentel/AFP via Getty Images)The shame of it, though, is there are so few Ivorians here to see them prove it on the biggest stage.A combination of this tournament’s extortionate ticket prices and the expense of travelling to the United States from what is, let’s face it, a relatively poor nation was always going to make it unlikely that there would be many Ivory Coast fans in attendance. But the U.S. has also made it very hard, and expensive, for Ivorians to secure visas to even come to the tournament.Five hundred members of Ivory Coast’s supporters club were denied visas shortly before the tournament started.As a result, there were probably less than 500 Ivory Coast fans in the crowd, a small contingent that included Jay-Z. They were gathered in two pockets: one immediately behind the team’s dugout, and a smaller one above them in the second tier. They certainly made their presence known at the end.I met one of them before the game: a sole Ivorian standing outside the gates while a sea of yellow-clad Ecuador fans walked past. When I asked him for his name, he said: “You can call me Mr Yaya.”As in Toure?“Exactly.”He told me he had got his ticket for free because he has “a big mouth”. The fact that he was willing to bring two drumskull drums to the game might have helped, too.I am glad he got in. He has an amazing story to tell about the day Diomande became a star.