Brahim Diaz: The next Manchester City starlet to join Borussia Dortmund?

Who is Brahim Diaz? That may be a question many Borussia Dortmund fans ask come the January transfer window as reports linking Die Schwarzgelben with a move for the player have surfaced.

The first thing we can say about Brahim Diaz is that, like our very own Jadon Sancho, he hails from the Manchester City Academy. But he didn’t start out there. Diaz was born in Malaga, where he played for the Malaga youth team until July 1st, 2013, when the young Spaniard joined Manchester City’s youth setup for a fee of £315,000.00.

In his time with City, Brahim Diaz has amassed a total of 22 goals and 14 assists. Most of his goals and assists have come for the youth teams and Manchester City reserves. Only two of these goals have been for the senior team, both coming in the EFL cup this season.

Despite this being the case, these numbers indicate 2 senior goals in 8 senior appearances. From his productive and proficient stats in the lower tiers of the Manchester City setup, we can infer that he would add to these numbers with ease, given the opportunity for more playing time.

Just like with Sancho, the lack of playing time may put City in a situation where they lose yet another talented prospect. According to Matt Jones and Bleacher Report, it has been reported that Borussia Dortmund are indeed keen on signing him.

Jones quotes Metro’s Sean Kearns in stating that Diaz is, “…contemplating his future at the club, and Metro.co.uk understands Dortmund and Real Madrid are both interested in signing him in January.”  ESPN have echoed both Dortmund and Real’s interest as well, adding to the credibility of the story.

The interest from Real Madrid is surely something that would turn a young player’s head. If Diaz were to make the switch, however, Dortmund would make more sense as he would not get a significant boost regarding playing time in Madrid.

The nature of when and how the move would take place is still up for debate. Ryan Darby of Read Bundesliga indicates that the move could happen in either January or the summer, depending on whether or not Borussia Dortmund want to pay a cut price or get their man for free. The problem here is that if other clubs like, say, Real Madrid are indeed circling the player, waiting is a very risky business.

It also depends on whether the player is willing to wait until the summer or not. In my opinion, the best route would be to sign Diaz in the January transfer window. Because of his contract running down, the price should therefore be more than affordable.

Of course, after having lost Jadon Sancho and seeing how well he’s performed, Pep Guardiola is very anxious to keep hold of Brahim Diaz. According to Sky Sports, Pep Guardiola was quoted in saying that:

"“He [Diaz] knows we want him, but after that it’s down to his agent and himself. We will do absolutely everything to keep him with us – afterwards he decides. We want him, but at the end it doesn’t depend on us.”"

Manchester Evening News’ writer Dan O’Toole also weighed in on ‘the Diaz dilemma’ highlighting that the youngster could take either the Jadon Sancho route and look for more playing time, or follow Oleksandr Zinchenko’s lead and stay to fight for a place.

Despite the fact that fighting for one’s place in a team stacked with talent the likes of Bernardo Silva, Leroy Sane, Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling is commendable, I find it hard to believe that Brahim Diaz, regardless of his immense potential, will find the minutes he needs to realize that potential and become a top player at City. Even when you don’t take the players already mentioned into account, Manchester City is prone to making purchases like Riyad Mahrez that put youth players at even more of a disadvantage.

It could be years before Brahim Diaz sees the first team. In fact, one only needs to look back to the EFL Cup game against Swansea in 2016 to prove this point. In the same game that Brahim Diaz made his debut for the Citizens, his fellow youth player Alex Garcia started the game. Garcia, who scored the game’s second goal, is now 21, and on loan with Toulouse.

With most of City’s players in their prime, it could be another 2-3 years of instability and loans for Diaz to have a chance at a breakthrough, which may make the idea of signing for a club like Borussia Dortmund permanently all the more appealing.

It should be noted that, despite an increase in playing time, Brahim Diaz would by no means be assured a starting position for Borussia Dortmund from the off. As with Sancho, Diaz would surely have to be patient and wait for his chance, but, just like with Sancho, the wait for minutes would be significantly shorter than at City.

The big question that remains to be answered is, if Borussia Dortmund were to buy Brahim Diaz, how would he fit into our already loaded squad? My answer to this question is speculative, but let’s start with the basics:

Diaz is a left footed attacking midfielder, with the capability of playing on the left or right wing. From the off, this creates a bit of a “happy problem” in the sense that we are of course spoiled for riches in these positions, with the likes of Marco Reus, Jacob Bruun Larsen, Jadon Sancho, Christian Pulisic, Marius Wolf, Mario Götze and Maximilian Philipp that play at least one of these positions. This doesn’t even include Shinji Kagawa, who has barely featured under Lucien Favre, and Sergio Gomez, who is also a youth prospect.

This list of players seems very daunting at first glance. However, despite this depth, breaking it down accordingly opens space for Brahim Diaz quite easily. Firstly, if we consider Maxi Philipp, his time has been spent playing backup striker to Paco Alcacer, and unless we sign another number 9 soon, it’s likely that he will continue to play that role.

The second point to keep in mind is that, while left and right wing are positions he can play, they aren’t necessarily positions that he needs to compete for in the first place, as his preferred position is at the center of the attack. Given this fact, the list of players Brahim Diaz will absolutely have to compete with, is three. This number further diminishes to two if the rumors about Shinji moving away from the club are to be taken seriously.

Taking all of this into account, Brahim Diaz would have Marco Reus and Mario Götze to compete with. This, of course, is no small task considering Reus is club captain and Götze has been in decent form recently. Despite this, there is enough flexibility in the team to accommodate Diaz in this position. With Borussia Dortmund still in both the Champions League and DFB Pokal, the match time will come.

It’s safe to say I am very much in favor of this transfer. Considering the prior success of Sancho’s move and the cut price due to his contract expiring in the summer, I have full confidence that Brahim Diaz making the switch would end up being a shrewd, low risk move that, if repaid with a little faith and magic by Lucien Favre, could see us have a player of true quality on our books. As Pep said though, the choice is in Diaz’s hands.

So, what do you say Brahim, do you want to play in black and yellow?