HOW DIAZ TURNED COLOMBIA FR OM WHITE TO RED
TO THOSE that have known him since he was a kid, Luis Diaz still plays the same way.
The same way he played on the sandy pitches in the small town of Barrancas in the north of Colombia.
Grass was at a premium, but it did not stop Diaz honing his skills in what was more like beach football than the proper game. As his cousin Henry Perez told CNN Sports: “One day we played in a tournament. The top scorer had scored 13 goals in two matches before. Luis overtook him in one match only, scoring 17 goals in one match!”
Tonight, Diaz will show those skills on the biggest stage in European football as Liverpool take on Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
Diaz, 25, has become the poster boy of Colombian football (inset top left, after scoring against Bolivia). So much so, the country has changed its football team.
Colombia was once a nation of Real Madrid supporters, but Los Blancos have been ditched for the Reds.
James Rodriguez (right) – the previous talisman of the national side – had made Real their team. Then he converted a few to Liverpool’s rivals Everton when he joined them in 2020.
But there is no doubting the South American nation will be awash with red shirts tonight.
James became his country’s darling after the 2014 World Cup, but he is not as loved now as his career stalls out in Qatar.
Diaz (inset top right, with former coach Carlos Restrepo) has taken the throne and is seen as the future of football in his homeland. He is still down to earth. His parents live in the same house the winger grew up in. But Diaz is building them a new home in Barrancas. He visits regularly and will return there this summer.
And in an area where jobs are scarce and coal mining provides most of them, Diaz has established his own charity to help young people.
Jose Diaz Brito, who manages the Luis Diaz Foundation, said: “We can show how Lucho got to the top, and we want kids to look at him and keep fighting.”
His football career began when he impressed at an open day for Barranquilla. He has a link to the Wayuu tribe, which saw him play for Colombia indigenous side in a special tournament as a teenager.
Soon he was picked up by Atletico Junior (inset, above) and, after two years there, made the move to Europe to play for Porto.
Colombia has always had a passion for Premier League football, but finally they now have a star at one of the biggest clubs. When James joined Everton, there was excitement, but Diaz has taken it to another level playing for the other team on Merseyside.
Diaz (above, after Liverpool’s FA Cup win) is enjoying the experience of England. Those that know him have been stunned by how quickly he has settled into life in Liverpool. They felt it would take time to break into Jurgen Klopp’s team while the cold English winters seem in sharp contrast to where he grew up.
But when he is twisting and turning Real defenders, there will be plenty remembering the same skills being on show on a sandy pitch in the town of Barrancas 5,000 miles away.