Yan Diomande named December Rookie of the Month!
RB Leipzig's Yan Diomande fended off competition from team-mate Conrad Harder and Werder Bremen’s Mio Backhaus to clinch the Rookie of the Month award for December 2025.
December 2025 winner
Diomande made two starts in December before being called up to represent Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations. The Leipzig winger was already in blistering form when he delivered one of the most impressive individual performances of the season on Matchday 13, scoring a sensational hat-trick in a 6-0 drubbing of Eintracht Frankfurt.
At the age of just 19 years and 22 days, the Leipzig No.49 became the second-youngest player in Bundesliga history to score three goals in one game after Walter Bechthold (Frankfurt, aged 18, 1965). The summer signing from CD Leganés also made history as just the third Leipzig player to hit a Bundesliga hat-trick after club record goalscorer Timo Werner and club record appearance-maker Yussuf Poulsen.
League-wide, only Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane scored more goals in December than Diomande, who also stood out among players in his position with 88 passes and a 57 percent success rate for challenges won. Germany – who have been drawn alongside Ivory Coast in the FIFA 2026 World Cup group stage – have been warned.
Watch: Leipzig's Diomande: a cut above the rest
Previous winners
November 2025
Ibrahim Maza (Bayer Leverkusen)
October 2025
September 2025
More on Rookie of the Month award
How it works
The Bundesliga will once again present the Rookie of the Month award to the best young talents in the 2025/26 season. Votes are cast not only by fans, but also by clubs and selected Bundesliga experts.
Vote weighting
- Fan votes: 40%
- Club votes: 30%
- Expert votes: 30%
Criteria
For a player to be classified as a rookie, certain requirements must be met. They must be under 23 years old on the first matchday of the season and must not have been in a starting line-up in any previous Bundesliga season. Furthermore, players must not have accumulated more than 450 minutes of playing time in the Bundesliga before the start of the current campaign.
This means that young talents who have only previously made brief appearances and have not yet had the opportunity to fully showcase their skill have the chance to be crowned Rookie of the Month. The monthly winners also receive a prestigious Bundesliga trophy and have the chance to defend their title the following month.
At the end of the season, the Rookie of the Season is chosen from the selection of monthly winners.
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