Luis Díaz, the subject who reached the finals of the Champions League after his start with a native team

When this Saturday at 4:00 pm the ball turns for the first time and the grand final of Champions League, most of the spectator eyes – from the public at the stadium and from television viewers – will include Karim Benzema, Mohamed Salah, Luca Modric, Sadio Mané, Toni Kroos or Virgil van Dijk. And on one side he was, hopefully, with his slender legs, with his face a little glamorous and with his football of vertigo and acceleration that never stopped growing. Is spoken of Colombian Luis Diazthe same shouted Marcelo Gallardo, that striker who for a few months fell in love with Jurgen Klopp and the Liverpool fans. From the Caribbean Sea to the Stade de France, will Díaz be the great revelation of the final?

It’s worth being honest: few Liverpool fans knew Diaz deeply when Porto was paid in January this year. € 45,000,000 to obtain their services. But his adaptation to the best league in the world has been superb, and so has his performance in Big earsPraises rained down on him from all sides.

“Luis Diaz you are an amazing player, my friend”wrote John Terry after the defeat of his beloved Chelsea against the Reds for the definition of the FA Cup.“I love it because I played in that position and I know it’s not easy, it’s complicated. I think, if Liverpool put a lot of money for Diaz, it’s because he has a lot of quality. So unified we’re talking about a player who I think will one day be number one in the world “added Robert Piers.

The 25-year-old Colombian was a good fit and added minutes to a star-studded squad. It is assumed he will start against Real Madrid, relegating Diogo Jota to the bench, whose numbers for the season are incredible. Díaz, who arrived at the start of the year, has amassed 6 goals in 25 games, while the Portuguese striker has scored 21 in 54 games. Mané and Salah, of course, secured their places in the trident. Brazilian Roberto Firmino will also be waiting on the bench.

But reaching for this happy gift is not an easy task for the Barrancas-born player, a town of 38,000 inhabitants in the department of La Guajira, a few kilometers from the Caribbean Sea and the border with Venezuela. Various indigenous communities live in this area that have been hit by poverty and the actions of paramilitary groups, including Wayuú, which includes the Díaz Marulanda family.

So small Fought He grew up admiring Brazilian Ronaldinho and kicked off the children’s team managed by his father, Luis Manuel. Although he stands out among his peers, no one would suggest that his fortunes could be highly competitive football. A stroke of fate turned the course in 2015. That year, the South American Football Confederation organized the first and only edition of American Cup of Indigenous Peoplesplayed in Chile a few weeks after the Copa América, which was won by a local cast led by Jorge Sampaoli.

In Colombia, a tournament was organized with teams from different communities to select the players who would form the team. The coaching staff is led by John Jairo Díaz and his visible face Carlos Valderrama. In that contest, the young man from Barrancas dazzled El Pibe. “This pelao from the little show. I was surprised at first. I said: ‘It’s going on’. And we put it in one”said the cracked curly hair in an interview with El Heraldo in 2017.

In the Copa Americana de Pueblo Indígenas, Lucho scored four goals in five games for his team, who are runner-up behind Paraguay. Then, Valderrama recommended him to Junior de Barranquilla, which added him to his ranks and sent him to his subsidiary team, the Barranquilla Fútbol Club. The great performances he showed there earned him a citation for his country’s U-20 team to participate in the South American Championship in Ecuador 2017.

But to achieve this, special work is needed from the coaching staff of the Barranquilla team. “She is very thin. I can’t say he’s malnourished, but he has shortcomings in his diet “said physical trainer Percy Cardona in an interview with El Espectador in July. “We take him to one of the replacement homes we manage, we increase the amount of protein (from 150 to 250 grams) and the type of vegetables. We also start giving him some multivitamin supplements to increase his muscle mass. ”he detailed.

After a year at the subsidiary, the boy who was then nicknamed Flaco or Fideo jumped into the Junior core team, where he debuted on July 6, 2017 in a 1-0 victory over Once Caldas. He soon established himself in Tiburón, where he became champion of the 2017 Colombia Cup, the 2018 Finalization Tournament, the 2019 Apertura and the Colombian Super League that year.

By then many were already focused on him, including Marcelo Gallardo, who wanted to take him to the River at the start of 2019. “Argentina is a very good place to reach Europe and it will also be important for my career”Diaz admitted at the time. However, the 5.6 million dollars offered by Millionaire for 70% of his record did not satisfy Junior. In any case, there are only a few months left in Colombia. The size of Argentina was not necessary to jump into the Old Continent: in July of that year, Porto paid 7.2 million euros to take him and make a contract for five seasons.

From the hands of an old acquaintance, Díaz came to the Colombian national team: his first call -up was in 2018 and the person responsible for his call -up was Arturo Reyes, who coached him at the Barranquilla Fútbol Club and supervised the national team in a temporary basis after the departure of Jose Peckerman. He debuted in a friendship in Argentina who finished 0-0 on Sept. 11 of that year in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Along with Portuguese Carlos Queiroz he continued to add minutes, even though the great jump was made after the arrival of Reinaldo Rueda, who made him a fixture in his team. Great performances in the Copa América and in the Qualifiersas well as his outstanding-only participation in Porto (which in 2020 he became champion of the League, the Cup and the Portuguese Super Cup) convinced Liverpool to destroy the piggy bank and take him to England.

“Luis’ speed. He understands our football one hundred percent. I think that’s what we saw in Porto, I feel lucky to be honest. He fits our football like a glove and it’s really special “praise him Jurgen Klopp a few weeks ago.

Colombian Luis Díaz is ready to put his name and his story on top of the football world. Will this be the cover of the Champions League final?