Former Chelsea and Ivory Coast winger Salomon Kalou has said he wants to see compatriot Yan Diomande develop in the Premier League, but said the 19-year-old has a special confidence that could make a Paris Saint-Germain move work.
Diomande has been linked with several clubs, with ESPN sources indicating Paris Saint-Germain are on the verge of beating the likes of Liverpool to securing his services from RB Leipzig for around €100 million ($114 million) plus potential add-ons.
Kalou was 20 when he signed for Chelsea from Feyenoord and believes the Premier League is a better platform to develop than Ligue 1. However, while he was starstruck by the big names around him after first signing for the Blues; Kalou admitted that Diomande and his generation of Ivory Coast stars have a bullishness that sets them apart.
“I think he has something about him – at his young age, he already has the confidence. You can see he is very confident about what he can do on the pitch,” Kalou told ESPN at a virtual media conference hosted by SuperSport prior to Ivory Coast’s 2-1 loss to Norway that saw them eliminated from the FIFA World Cup.
“I think if that’s the choice – to go to PSG – there’s a reason behind it. PSG is a team that is winning everything at the moment, so why not if he wants to be in a team that wins everything?
“If you ask me, between the Premier League and Ligue 1 – where a player can develop most, I would say the Premier League – but [Paris-Saint Germain] is a top club and a team that can win everything.
“His confidence about himself shows already that he understood that if he wants to be among the best, he needs to show it. He is doing that for Ivory Coast at the moment, so we are happy and we are proud of what we are doing for the country.”
The World Cup tournament did not ultimately end the way Kalou would have wanted, but he suggested prior to the Norway loss that Diomande was one of many players in the team with an elite mentality.
Kalou said: “They have something that we didn’t have, even [though] people say [the team from the 2000s and 2010s was] the golden generation – but they have something [in the current generation] that we didn’t have: it’s that they can play dirty, they can make it hard, they can fight.
“We wanted to win the perfect game back in the day… [the current generation] understood that there is no perfect game. You’ve got to win the games.”
Information from ESPN FC’s Julien Laurens contributed to this report.
