Ivory Coast’s Yan Diomande is playing for a bigger cause.
The pro soccer player wrote an emotional essay sharing that he’s competing at the 2026 World Cup in honor of his late sister Roxane, who died last year at the age of 15 after her drink was spiked.
“I wrote this because I can’t speak about it,” Diomande explained in a personal essay titled “Dear Roxane” for The Players’ Tribune published June 17. “I wrote this because I want you to know that I will make sure that you live on. I will make sure that everybody knows your name. The whole world.”
He added, “Everything I do on a football pitch, it’s for you.”
The 19-year-old detailed receiving the heartbreaking news that his sister had died just as he was finally starting to find success in his athletic career.
“I don’t even think I shed a tear the day they told me that you were gone,” he wrote. “I was just in shock. It was a few weeks after I made my debut for Leganés. Who makes their debut at 18 against Real Madrid? It was too crazy. It was a dream. And then it was a nightmare.”
