Valentin Adama Diomande (born 14 February 1990) is a Norwegian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He has previously played for

Lyn Lyn or LYN may refer to: People * Lyn (singer), South Korean singer * Lyn (gamer), South Korean ''Warcraft III'' player * Lyn (given name) * Lyn (surname) In science and technology * Lynx (constellation), standard abbreviation * Lyn (locomotive ...

, Skeid, Hødd,

Strømsgodset Strømsgodset is a former municipality in Vestfold county (from 1964 Buskerud county) in Norway which is today a part of the city of Drammen. History Strømsgodset was originally a small rural annex to the city parish of Bragernes (Drammen). ...

, Dinamo Minsk, Stabæk,

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) is an American professional association football, soccer club based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. It was establi ...

, Cangzhou Mighty Lions, Al-Sailiya, Al-Arabi, Odd, and

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matc ...

Early life

Diomande was born in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

to parents from the Ivory Coast. He played youth football for the clubs Holmlia,

Vålerenga Vålerenga () is a neighbourhood in the city of Oslo, Norway, belonging to the borough of Gamle Oslo. Vålerenga is located between the neighbourhoods of Gamlebyen, Jordal, Ensjø, Etterstad and Lodalen. Vålerenga is in particular known for i ...

, and

. He has attended the sport secondary school Norges Toppidrettsgymnas, like most of Lyn's young players. He initially studied sports science at Ulsrud High School.

Club career

Diomande made his senior debut on 19 October 2008 against

Hamarkameratene Hamarkameratene (), often abbreviated to HamKam or Ham-Kam, is a Norwegian professional football club based in the town of Hamar. The club was founded in 1918, originally under the name Freidig. HamKam were most recently promoted to the Elites ...

, as a substitute in the 86th minute. He played one more game in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and one in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. Ahead of the 2010 season he joined Skeid. On 26 March 2015, Diomande signed a 2.5-year contract with Stabæk. Playing for head coach Bob Bradley in 2015, Diomande had his most productive season to date, scoring 25 goals in 26 appearances. On 1 September 2015, Diomande joined English club

of the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

for a fee of £1.7 million. Because of injury, he had to wait until 12 December 2015 to make his debut when he came off the bench as a 77th-minute replacement for

Chuba Akpom Chuba Amechi Akpom (born 9 October 1995) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Lille, on loan from Eredivisie club Ajax. Akpom began his career at Arsenal, making his senior debut in 2013. Whilst at Arsenal, h ...

, in a 1–0 home win against

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

. Diomande made his Premier League debut on 13 August 2016, scoring a spectacular overhead kick in a shock 2–1 defeat of reigning champions

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

. On 1 May 2018, Diomande signed with

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

club

, reuniting him with Bradley in his first season at LAFC. Diomande made an immediate impact, scoring nine goals in his first seven league contests and being named MLS Player of the Month in his first full month on the squad. On 13 August 2020, Diomande released a statement on Twitter that he was terminating his contract with LAFC "with immediate effect" for family reasons. On 2 April 2021, Diomande joined Chinese club Cangzhou Mighty Lions. On 8 August 2021, Diomande joined Qatari club Al-Sailiya. In January 2023, he joined

. Diomande made his debut for the club starting in a 3–2 loss at

DC United D.C. United is an American professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Suppor ...

in the season opener on 25 February 2023. After missing most of the 2023 season due to injury, he was waived by the club ahead of the 2024 season. On 30 August, he joined

KFUM Oslo KFUM-Kameratene Oslo is the sports branch of the local YMCA in Oslo, Norway. It has departments for association football, futsal, volleyball, and track and field. The football team currently plays in Eliteserien from 2024, the top tier of the Norw ...

International career

Diomande received his first international call-up to the senior team in June 2015, making his debut for the senior team on 12 June when he came on as a substitute for

Joshua King Josh or Joshua King may refer to: * Josh King (basketball) (born 1985), American basketball coach * Josh King (rugby league) (born 1995), Australian rugby league footballer * Joshua King (mathematician) Joshua King (16 January 1798 – 1 Sept ...

in the 79th minute of a goalless

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2 ...

draw against

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

Ullevaal Stadion Ullevaal Stadion () is an all-seater football stadium located in Oslo, Norway. It is the home ground of the Norway national football team, and the site of the Norwegian Cup Final. From its opening in 1926 to 2009 it was the home ground of ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Norway's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Diomande goal.''

Honours

Strømsgodset *

Tippeligaen Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Los Angeles FC *

Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 199 ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Individual * MLS Player of the Month: June 2018

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Diomande, Adama 1990 births Living people Footballers from Oslo Norwegian people of Ivorian descent Norwegian men's footballers 21st-century Norwegian sportsmen Men's association football forwards Norway men's international footballers Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players Belarusian Premier League players Premier League players English Football League players Major League Soccer players Chinese Super League players Qatar Stars League players Holmlia SK players Lyn Fotball players Skeid Fotball players IL Hødd players Strømsgodset Toppfotball players FC Dinamo Minsk players Stabæk Fotball players Hull City A.F.C. players Los Angeles FC players Cangzhou Mighty Lions F.C. players Al-Sailiya SC players Al-Arabi SC (Qatar) players Toronto FC players KFUM-Kameratene Oslo players Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Belarus Expatriate men's footballers in Belarus Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate men's footballers in China Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada