Who is Mohamed Diomande? Rangers' exciting new box-to-box star midfielder

Rangers have made a considerable January transfer signing, following confirmation of a deal that now sees Mohamed Diomande join the club from FC Nordsjaelland. According to reports in Denmark, the 22-year-old central midfielder will make the move to Ibrox in a deal worth a reported €5.3 million. Not only is that a considerable sum for a player joining a Scottish Premiership club with just six months left on his contract, it’s also the third largest sum Rangers have spent on a player in the last five seasons. So who is Diomande and how good is the new Ibrox player?

Who is Mohamed Diomande? 

Diomande began his career in the famed Right to Dream academy in Ghana, which in 2021 joined the Mansour Group: a multi-club group that also owns the player's former Danish side. As such, it came as no great surprise when the midfielder made the move to the Superliga club in 2020 for the paltry sum of just €25k. It’s worth noting that since both clubs joined the Mansour Group, four of Nordsjaelland’s six biggest sales have been players that first came through the Ghanaian academy. Diomande’s departure for Rangers now means five of the club’s top 10 sales were Right to Dream graduates. 

After making the move to Denmark, Diomande more or less made an immediate impact at his new club. Despite his young age, the midfielder made his senior debut just a month into his new spell and finished his first season with 16 appearances in all competitions. Over the course of the next four seasons, Diomande would clock no less than 111 games for the club, bagging 13 goals and 14 assists as he quickly established himself as one of the best box-to-box midfielders in the Danish top-flight. 

How good is Mohamed Diomande? 

While Diomande has established himself as one of Danish football’s most accomplished central midfielders, taking the next step in his career to Rangers will clearly go on to define how high he can reach in the European game. Fortunately for fans of the Ibrox club, Nordsjaelland have a pretty good track record of developing young players that go on to thrive at higher levels. For example, West Ham winger Mohammed Kudus, Brighton prospect Simon Adingra, Brentford pair Mathias Jensen and Mikkel Damsgaard, as well as Napoli defensive midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, all spent time developing their skills at the Danish club before moving on to bigger leagues. And there’s little doubt that Diomande could do exactly that at Rangers.