Diego

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Diego made his first match for Bremen in the DFB-Ligapokal, which Werder won by beating Bayern Munich in the final on 5 August 2006. The 2006–07 Bundesliga season began well for him: on 13 August, he scored the first goal and set up two more in a 4–2 win over Hannover 96, and in his second match he set up both goals in a 2–1 win over Bayer Leverkusen. He won the August Player of the Month award, then again in October and December 2006, and was named Best Player of the first half of the season. Along with Torsten Frings, they were called the "two motors of Bremen's midfield." In the UEFA Cup, Bremen reached the semi-finals after beating AZ in the quarter-finals due in part to Diego's creative play. On 20 April 2007, he scored from 62.5 metres in stoppage time against Alemannia Aachen, a goal later elected as goal of the year. Bremen finished third in the Bundesliga that season, behind champions VfB Stuttgart and Schalke 04. In 2007–08, he scored a penalty on the first matchday and was crucial as Bremen progressed to the Champions League group stage, scoring two penalties in a 3–2 win over Dinamo Zagreb. He signed a new contract until 2011 after interest from Real Madrid. In September, he was voted Player of the Month. In 2008–09, his last season, he scored 20 goals in total, including six in the UEFA Cup knockout stages. He scored against Milan in the round of 32, equalizing after 84 minutes, and assisted Claudio Pizarro in the second leg's only goal. In the semi-finals, after a 1–0 first-leg loss to Hamburger SV, he scored an early equalizer in the second leg and assisted a corner to Frank Baumann's third goal, but received a yellow card that prevented him from playing in the final. Bremen lost the 2009 UEFA Cup Final 2–1 in extra time to Shakhtar Donetsk. In his last match for Bremen, he assisted Mesut Özil's winning goal against Bayer Leverkusen in the DFB-Pokal final, securing Bremen's sixth title in the competition.

In Their Own Story

The Weserstadion was humming. Eighty thousand voices pressed against the night air, the green floodlights turning the pitch into a sheet of emerald glass. Diego stood over the ball, twenty-two metres out, slightly left of centre. He tapped it back and forth, back and forth, the ball a metronome under his boot. The opposing wall shifted, uncertain. He drew a breath, looked up at the crossbar, and struck it with the inside of his right foot. The ball rose, curved, and hung in the air for what felt like an eternity before dropping into the top corner. The stadium detonated. He did not celebrate. He simply turned, jogged back to midfield, and waited for the next pass as if he had done nothing extraordinary at all.

Reader's Guide

Diego did not arrive in Bremen as a finished product; he arrived as a promise, and then he kept it for five years. In the green-and-white shirt, he was the player who made the impossible look routine — a free kick that arced over a wall like a question no one could answer, a diagonal pass that split three defenders as if they were standing in a line he had drawn himself. He was the number ten who did not need to be the loudest voice in the box because the ball was already there before the striker had made his run. What made him a Werder icon, rather than merely a good player who happened to wear green, was the way he fit into the identity of the club. Diego brought a different kind of character: the character of beauty, of risk, of choosing the harder pass because it was the right one. He made the Weserstadion feel like a theatre, and the fans became his audience. Bremen fans still chant his name. Not because he was the fastest or the strongest, but because when he had the ball, the game slowed down, the noise softened, and for a few seconds everyone in the stadium was watching one man do something that looked like it was not supposed to be possible. That is what a Werder legend is: not the one who scored the most, but the one who made you believe football could still be art.

Did You Know?

• Diego scored from 62.5 metres in stoppage time against Alemannia Aachen on 20 April 2007, a goal later elected as goal of the year.
• He won the Bundesliga Player of the Season award for 2006–07 from kicker magazine, receiving just over 50 percent of the votes.
• Diego was named Player of the Month in August, October, and December 2006, and was named Best Player of the first half of the 2006–07 Bundesliga season.
• In his last match for Bremen, he assisted Mesut Özil's winning goal in the DFB-Pokal final against Bayer Leverkusen, securing Bremen's sixth title in the competition.
• Diego scored six goals in the knockout stages of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, including an equalizer against Milan in the round of 32.