Late on in the transfer window, Wolverhampton Wanderers knocked on Strasbourg’s door for two of their midfielders.
They got one in Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, but also tried for Habib Diarra, a younger option with more potential.
While Strasbourg eventually sold the former, they stood firm for the latter, and gave him a new contract this month, much to the delight of the Wolves target, as he explained to L’Alsace.
He said: “It means a lot. It’s the club that helped me grow, the club trusted me. To continue the adventure here, it’s beautiful and magnificent.”
L’Alsace do point out that had the Ligue 1 side decided not to ‘lock him down’ as they did, it was likely that the young midfielder would have ‘responded favourably’ to the interest shown in him from RC Lens and Wolves.
He was then kept out of the starting line up for a while to allow him to relax and let the situation around him cool off, but he is now back and impacting his team’s results.
Wolves went as far as offering €25m for the player, showing just how much they were prepared to get the 19-year-old.
There was talk of them still being interested, but with him now under contract at Strasbourg until 2028, the French club have a lot of leverage in negotiations.
