Amad Diallo? Man Utd signed the wrong brother
STADIO GRANDE TORINO, TORINO, ITALY - 2019/08/25: Hamed Junior Traore of Us Sassuolo Calcio during the the Serie A match between Torino Fc and Us Sassuolo Calcio. Torino Fc wins 2-1 over Us Sassuolo Calcio. (Photo by Marco Canoniero/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Much has been said recently about the struggles of wonderkid Amad Diallo since his big-money move to Manchester United in January 2021.
The Ivory Coast winger joined from Atalanta in a deal worth an eventual €40 million, a huge fee for an 18-year-old who had made just five senior appearances for Atalanta.
Amad was described as a once-in-a-generation talent and compared to Lionel Messi by his former Atalanta teammate Papu Gomez.
The youngster’s former coach Giovanni Galli predicted he would win the Ballon d’Or within five years.
But the proceeding 13 months have been something of a misery for Amad.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and then Ralf Rangnick never believed he was ready to be a regular part of the Man Utd squad and he has made only three starts and nine appearances for Man Utd in all competition, scoring just the one goal.
In 2021-22, he played just once for United – a 1-1 dead-rubber against Young Boys when Man Utd were already qualified as Champions League group winners.
Man Utd decided to loan Amad out in the January 2022 transfer window to Glasgow Rangers. But his start to life in Scotland has been mixed to say the very least.
He scored on his debut against Ross County but was hauled off in his next game after 45 minutes against Celtic following a dreadful performance. He was subsequently dropped and played just five minutes in his next two games before being recalled for the Scottish Cup win over Annan Athletic.
Who is Hamed Traore?
On the same weekend that Amad was having a quiet game against third-tier Scottish opposition, his brother Hamed Traore was enjoying a man-of-the-match performance against one of the greatest managers in history.
The 21-year-old Hamed made one and scored the other as Sassuolo turned around a 1-0 deficit against Jose Mourinho’s Roma in Serie A. They had seemed set to win the game until Bryan Cristante headed home deep into injury-time to earn Roma a point in a 2-2 draw.
Traore had enjoyed a fantastic game on the left side of Sassuolo’s 4-3-3, causing Roma all kind of problems with his progressive running, dribbles and passes.
It completed a fantastic week for Traore from an individual point of view. He also was one of the stars of the show during Sassuolo’s midweek Coppa Italia clash in Turin against Juventus.
Traore cancelled out Paulo Dybala’s early opener with a stunning curling strike into the top corner. Once again, though, Sassuolo conceded a late goal to exit the competition in the quarter finals.
Until now, it has been Amad Diallo who has got most of the attention in the Traore family but Hamed is showing that he is a big talent in his own right.
He is capable of playing in a number of positions in the attack, having been utilised on the left wing, as a central attacking midfielder, a right winger and also in a deeper central midfield role.
Despite being only two years older than Amad, he is much further advanced in his senior development.
This is his fourth full season in Serie A, having originally debuted in Serie B in 2017 at the age of 2017 for Empoli before moving to Sassuolo in 2019.
He has already made over 100 senior appearances, and netted a respectable five goals in both of his first two campaigns for Sassuolo. He has three so far this term. Amad, on the other hand, has only 18 senior appearances in his career and just two goals.
Hamed has been followed by both Juventus and Arsenal and will surely be in the transfer gaze again this summer.
Perhaps Man Utd signed the wrong brother!
