Huijsen or Zabarnyi replacement? Bournemouth sign Diakité for club-record transfer fee

Ligue 1 star 

Bournemouth began their defensive rebuild in ernest on Wednesday morning, when the Cherries confirmed the signing of Lille defender Bafodé Diakité on a five-year deal. According to reports, the 24-year-old French talent will make the move to the Premier League side for an initial fee of €35 million, with an additional €5m in add-ons agreed between the two clubs. That makes Diakité the club’s second most expensive signing ever, but once his add-ons are met, the defender will overtake Evanilson’s €37m move from Porto last season to become Bournemouth’s record signing.

Aside from goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic joining from Chelsea for €28.9m and Stade Rennais left-back Adrien Truffert joining for €13.5m, Diakité makes the move to the Vitality Stadium as the club’s first major signing since the high-profile exodus of Andoni Iraola defensive unit. To the dismay of Bournemouth fans, the club have sold last season’s central defensive partnership of Dean Huijsen and Ilya Zabarnyi to Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain for a combined total of €125.5m. And when we add Bournemouth’s other sales - including left-back Milos Kerkez’s €46.9m move to Liverpool - to that, it brings the club’s income from player sales to an eye-watering €187m. Which is the highest amount of money the club have ever made in a single transfer window.

How good is new Bournemouth signing Bafodé Diakité?

After coming through the youth ranks of his hometown club Toulouse, Diakité made a €3m move to Lille in 2022 and quickly established himself as a first team starter for the Ligue 1 giants. Whether tasked with playing at right-back, centre back or even at times on the left flank, Diakité has been a regular fixture for Lille over the course of the last three seasons. And, due to consistent and impressive performances, his market value has steadily risen from just €3m when he made the move to Lille in 2022 to where it now stands at €28m.

Transfermarkt France Content Manager Joachim Durand: Bafodé Diakité was not the most coveted player in Ligue 1. But, he was the star player of the second-best defence in Ligue 1 last season. And at the same time, he performed well against the best clubs in the world in the Champions League (Real Madrid, Juventus, Atlético Madrid). He's not that big for a defender (1.84m), but he's strong in one-on-one situations. He is a versatile player who can also play at right-back without any problems. For all these reasons, I find it hard to understand why no big club was interested in him. It's probably because of his age. He's 24, so he's neither a young prospect, who would represent a high resale potential, nor an experienced player. But if we're talking about football, he is a great addition for probably any Premier League club outside the 'Big six'.