Ousmane Diomande

Forest look close to making their 2nd signing of the summer in Sporting Lisbon & Côte d’Ivoire international Ousmane Diomande.

Forest are reportedly very close to a deal for Sporting Lisbon centre back Ousmane Diomande - the 22 year old Côte d’Ivoire international, who has been heavily linked with multiple clubs in the last few transfer windows.

For a price of anywhere between £30-£40m (depending on where you read and who you trust), it would seem Diomande would be almost a lock for the RCB spot in Oliver Glasner’s back 3.

Over the last 3 seasons, Diomande has played over 6,100 minutes in the Portuguese top flight, with that playing time fairly evenly split between playing in a back 3 and in a centre back pairing.

Most recently, Diomande was on the right of a centre back pair alongside Gonçalo Inácio, but in previous seasons was used both on the right and in the centre of a back 3.

Diomande’s data profile remains failry similar throughout these past three seasons. You’ll notice that he has some fairly low defensive action numbers - this must be used alongside the context of playing in one of the strongest sides in the division - he just hasn’t had to do as much defending as others, so the numbers are almost artificially low.

It is perhaps interesting to see that despite the low volume of defensive actions throughout these 3 seasons, Diomande’s ranking for Threat Prevented has continued to increase year on year - this shows that when he is being asked to defend, he’s doing it in fairly high danger areas. Couple this with a tackle success rate better than any other Centre Back in the Portuguese top flight last season, and it would seem like Forest are getting their hands on a very strong option.

It’s also good to note his performance in the xG Build Up metric (measuring how often a player is involved in passing moves that lead to chances at goal) - this dropped in the 2024/25 season as he was mostly used as the central centre back in a 3. But when he was predominantly used on the right of a back 3 (like he probably will be at Forest), he was one of the most heavily involved defenders in the league.

For a bit of added context - we can also look at his data from the Champions League last season. Diomande played over 600 minutes during Sporting’s run to the Champions League Quarter Finals where they were knocked out by Arsenal.