36 years and four months after returning to the club where he trained, with which he was champion in 2007, he played 201 games and scored 30 goals in three cycles, Diego Valeri said goodbye Lano with an emotional letter posted on his Twitter and Instagram accounts, although he has not confirmed whether he will continue to play football at a professional level.

In his farewell text, the midfielder, one of the most important footballers in the forge of Garnet in the past two decades, He remembered his first day of training with the main team when he was 16. “I started making my way. This is the hardest part: acting for yourself. Lanús taught me to be myself. Neither more than anyone nor less. To get up when I fell and play with my head held high, he ball under the sole. Nobly, “he said.

Fluff He trained in the minor leagues and made his debut in the First Division on 27 September 2003, at the age of 17, in the match that the team led by Michele Brindisi drew 1 to 1 with Vélez for the sixth round of the Apertura Tournament that year (he replaced Javier Morales in the 39th minute of the second half). Although he played 10 years abroad, Lanús was the team of his life and the only one he played in the country for three cycles.

“Thank you for allowing me to make history within you. Your heart is mine. The heart of the neighborhood that saw me born and lent me its streets as paddocks, the gates of its factories as arches and its infinite baby clubs to get to know football in its essence. The one that I tried to carry with passion until the last day “, he highlighted. And he added: “I know that from now on I will be in the heat of his memories. The memories you choose. We did them together. Let’s keep them forever “..

Although Valeri participated in the Brindisi cycles, Carlos Ramaciotti and Néstor Gorosito between 2003 and 2005, its take-off was produced by the hand of Ramón Cabreroto the point of being one of the key pieces of the team that gave the Garnet his first national title in the highest category: the 2007 Opening Tournament.

In July 2009 it was loaned to the Port with a purchase option of € 6.7 million. There he played for a season, in which he won the Portuguese Cup, and then spent six months with the Spanish team of Almería before returning to Lanús. Her second cycle lasted two years. In that period he also had his chance in the senior national team: he played three friendlies as a starter in 2011, during Sergio Batista’s cycle, against Venezuela (4 to 1 victory), against Ecuador (2 to 2) and against Paraguay (victory 4 to 2). With the sub-20 he had played two games.

After a semester relegated to the bench by Guillermo Barros Schelotto, in January 2013 he left for the United States to play for the Portland Timbers. What initially seemed like a risky bet turned out to be an extraordinary experience. Valeri has played 309 games and scored 100 goals in eight and a half yearsduring which he won the MLS Cup in 2015 and the MLS is Back tournament in 2020, he stood out as the Most valuable player from the league in 2017 and became an idol in the most populous city in the state of Oregon.

In January of this year, he decided to back down. “When you grow up you realize what those who accompany you suffer. At a certain point you say: ‘Well, let’s stop for a while, we don’t want that anymore’. We live football with a lot of stress, with concern. And we don’t have that much fun. This is what we want to finish. So now we will make the decisions by carrying out family projects ”, he later justified in an interview with Clarín.

In this third round he played 12 games and scored one goal (against Rosario Central). His last presentation was on May 25, when Lanús beat Metropolitanos 1-0 and qualified for the round of 16 of the Copa Sudamericana. That evening at the Fortaleza he received a framed shirt for reaching 200 games with the burgundy shirt, was a starter, assisted Diego Braghieri in the only goal of the cast led by Jorge Almirón, was replaced by Maximiliano González in the 15 ‘of the second half, was carried by his team-mates at the end of the match and was applauded by the audience. Eight days later, he said goodbye.