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1 September 2026

Bayer Leverkusen have finalised the return of Moussa Diaby from Al-Ittihad, taking the French winger back to the Bundesliga three years after he first left the BayArena. Kicker reports that the Saudi club eventually gave the required approval and signatures after a transfer that had been held up by several weeks of negotiations and had come close to collapsing at the last moment. Leverkusen are reportedly set to pay €27m for the 27-year-old.

Diaby had already been back in Leverkusen since last week while both clubs tried to sort out the final contractual details. The delay became especially tense after Al-Ittihad failed to sign Ritsu Doan from Eintracht Frankfurt on Monday evening. Doan’s decision to turn down the Saudi club threatened to make Diaby’s exit even more complicated before Al-Ittihad finally cleared the move.

In the end, Leverkusen got their man.

Very few major summer signings should need less time to settle in. Diaby first joined from Paris Saint-Germain in 2019 as a hugely promising but still relatively unpolished winger, and over four seasons in Leverkusen he grew into one of the Bundesliga’s most dangerous attacking players.

He scored 49 goals in 172 competitive appearances for the Werkself before Aston Villa paid around €55m to bring him to the Premier League in 2023. Diaby spent only one season in England before joining Al-Ittihad in July 2024.

His two years in Saudi Arabia brought a league title, but the prospect of a return to European football became more and more realistic this summer. Leverkusen were especially drawn to a player profile they already knew extremely well.

Diaby is capable of playing on either wing, operating in narrower areas behind a striker and offering a transition threat through his pace and acceleration that is still difficult to replicate elsewhere in the squad.

His most productive Bundesliga season came in 2021/22, when he posted 13 goals and 12 assists in league action.

Diaby also developed into a more tactically complete attacker during his first spell at the club. At first he was most dangerous when running into open space, but later he added the ability to influence matches against deeper defensive blocks and eventually functioned effectively as one of Xabi Alonso’s narrower attacking players.

That familiarity should help Carles Martínez bring him straight into the side.

Diaby’s return had effectively been expected through the closing stages of Leverkusen’s summer preparations. The 2026/27 Bayer Leverkusen tactical preview from Get German Football News highlighted the right attacking flank as one of the few unresolved positions in Martínez’s strongest XI and essentially viewed the available choices there as temporary options until Diaby arrived.

Afonso Moreira offers a more natural solution from the left, while Diaby can begin on the right and drive inside onto his stronger left foot. He can also swap flanks or move into central areas when Martínez changes the attacking structure.

For a Leverkusen squad that went through another major turnover of personnel this summer, Diaby brings something particularly important: a top-level addition who already knows the club, the Bundesliga and the expectations that come with the BayArena.

The timing of the transfer also feels important after Leverkusen’s disastrous opening weekend in the Bundesliga. Martínez’s team suffered a shock 3-2 defeat away to newly-promoted SV Elversberg after going 2-0 down inside the first nine minutes and then conceding again almost immediately after half-time. Goalkeeper Mark Flekken later gave a brutal assessment of the performance.