So, as we know, Mohamed Diomande has now finally left Rangers. And the destination he ended up in sums up just how poor he was for the Ibrox giants. First of all, let’s not forget the origins of the boy.
Diomande’s unusual route to Rangers
Initially, there was a tug of war, of course, over his origins. That is to say, his nationality and the country he would be representing at international level. He was born, of course, in the Ivory Coast. But due to his football heritage and family background, was also able to play for Ghana. This was based on a youth academy that he was reared in during his younger days. And this was where Danish giants Nordsjælland plucked him from.
Specifically speaking, Nordsjælland have an entire conveyor belt, curiously, of African players that they pluck for very little cash. Why? Because Ghanian-founded football academy Right to Dream outright own them and funnel a bunch of players up to Denmark and then somehow manage to sell for big money. They’ve done it time and time again over the past decade. And have this factory of revenue coming in for players who really don’t all merit it.
Dio was one of them. Rangers were well and truly duped by this system, a system that is well known for being a bit of a scam. Or at least a very smart way to make money out of many average football players. And Mohamed Diomande was part of that scam.
Two clues sum up Diomande
The simple reality of two things proves just how poor Dio actually was. Not outright garbage, because we cannot ever call him that. He was certainly well below the level that Rangers need in midfield. He was mediocrity epitomised.
However, two big clues give away just how mediocre he actually was. First of all, despite getting some call ups to his newly chosen country, the Ivory Coast, he did not get a World Cup call up. Put simply, he wasn’t good enough. He was overlooked entirely for the squad going to the USA, Canada and Mexico. We can’t say we’re terribly surprised by that.
The second part is that for all the talent that some fans would allege that he has, he didn’t get a move to a decent team. He didn’t get a move even to a decent league. He ended up in the predictable hellhole that is Turkey.
Another Rangers player heads to Turkey
The number of Rangers players who fail miserably and amount to very little, and end up going to the Süper Lig in Turkey, really blows Ibrox Noise’s collective minds. We only have to look at Ryan Kent (ok he wasn’t a fail at Ibrox), John Lundstram, Borna Barišić and, of course, now good old Mohamed Diomande.
There are one or two others who have also ended up in Turkey and haven’t done particularly well there. Let’s not forget a certain Ianis Hagi, who also ended up there too.
These are not for Galatasaray or for any of the other big teams in Turkey. In Dio’s case, of course, he ended up with the glorious FK Korum. Not the retail, the real estate giant in the UK, but some club called FK Korum. We can’t say that we’d ever heard of them.
But simply going to Turkey, for us, is nothing more than a mercenary choice. Because Turkey is not regarded as a polished and credible league. It does have some big teams in it, Galatasaray of course being its big hitters, who are back to being champions.
But the number of Istanbul teams, including Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş and many, many more. These teams are well known globally, but we can’t say that the league standard is particularly high. And we know all the toxic stories about how they do business.
Indeed, we are more than a touch surprised that Trabzonspor were able to get Mohamed Salah.
But nevertheless, that Dio ended up in Turkey says a lot about the quality that he is. Rather than getting a quality mainland continental league, or indeed possibly one in England.
Is this the biggest proof that he was poor? It’s certainly up there. He really did contribute very little to Rangers’ entire campaign.
Rangers finally move Diomande on
The whole deal over him was, as we say, bizarre, to do with Nordsjælland and that conveyor belt system. He came in as a loan. He did not particularly impress during that initial period.
And then with an obligation to purchase at the end for £4.5M Rangers had to spend the big cash. This was in itself a bit of an alarm bell ringing.
And now Rangers have sold him for what is reported as £4.9M. So there is a minuscule profit of £400,000, which we suppose is better than nothing.
But for everything that is good about that little bit of cash, he contributed so little as a Rangers player. And made such a little impact that he will be very quickly forgotten.
We’re sure he’s a nice bloke, aren’t they always? But as a complete liability on the pitch and someone who made so little impact, we can’t help but wonder. What was the whole point of Mohamed Diomande?
We’re just glad he’s gone.