Two wingers, both at RB Leipzig last season. Yan Diomande and Antonio Nusa. The first with 13 goals and 10 assists, the second with 5 goals and 4 assists. Liverpool, PSG and Real Madrid were chasing the Ivorian 19-year-old, Liverpool, Arsenal and a bunch of other clubs followed the situation of the Norwegian 21-year-old. Then Real Madrid pressed the buy button with a wild 125 million euros, Nusa stayed at Leipzig. A month+ into this season, we are convinced Nusa made the right choice to give themselves time for further development – without a move.
Nusa stayed at the club he knows, with expectations that are not linked to an insane transfer fee like Diomande, but as a player Leipzig should aim to provide the best working conditions for further development.
READ: Leeds are back in earnest!
Last season, Nusa was behind 5 goals and 4 assists in 35 games in the RB Leipzig shirt. Five games into the new season for the same club, the 21-year-old only needs 2 goals and 2 assists to match this.
No need to ponder why Nusa has not delivered in the Bundesliga as it has for Norway. This is happening now, the first five games confirm this!
And the 19-year-old Diomande at Jose Mourinho?
Of course, the Ivorian teenager hasn’t already played his way into the starting eleven at the world’s biggest club. Jose Mourinho is not hired to develop young players, he is measured by trophies.
“The effort is not in short supply. If instead of being at Real Madrid with this squad he was in a team with fewer players with high potential, he would definitely be in the starting line-up for the full 90 minutes of the game,” Mourinho begins.
Read on F7: Haaland impressed after Manchester derby: ‘He looks a bit like a wolf’
“I say this about Diomande and about all the others. The squad is strong and has a lot of opportunities. The coach doesn’t just look at ten players and forget about the others. During the season you lose fuel in the engine, and the same goes for motivation and internal competitiveness. We talk about Diomande, but we can also talk about Vinicius, about Arda, about Brahim and in January about Rodrygo. Being a regular in the starting line-up, as you like to say, is difficult,” Mourinho says.
In other words, the 19-year-old gets nothing without deserving it. When you compete with several of the best players on the market, it goes without saying that the development opportunities are so-so. Deliver, or spend the season on the bench, this is the hard law at Real Madrid.
Read on Radiosporten: Portuguese media: Convinced Andreas Schjelderup will soon disappear to the Premier League or La Liga
In Leipzig, Antonio Nusa thrives on the pitch, at RB Leipzig everything is arranged for young players to have the best working conditions for development – also on the match arena in the Bundesliga, Champions League and cup.
