In cooperation with Goal light Football zone regularly out young players who can go far in the future. Most of them know how to quickly display their talent on the highest stage, but that is not for everyone. Sergio Díaz, for example, is such a talent that it has not yet been able to live up to. The left winger was nicknamed ‘Paraguayan Aguero’ as a teenager and signed with Real Madrid in 2016, but has yet to make his debut for the Royal.
As a former international and former national coach of his country, Carlos Jara Saguier has an unfailing sense when dealing with a potential star and Sergio Diaz is one of the best he has worked with. “I saw a very complete player who continuously made the right choices and was also able to perform it effortlessly with his feet,” the coach recalls in conversation with Goal and Football zone. “As a child, he already shone in the first team of Cerro Porteno.”
Díaz indeed made his debut as a fifteen-year-old in the main squad of the 27-time Paraguayan champion, which quickly put him on the radar of top international clubs. However, he remained in his home country for another year before making the move to Europe, so Jara Saguier, as Paraguay Under-17 head coach, was able to see up close how quickly Diaz adapted to life among the pros. “I heard that he was immediately good in the group at his club and his greatest quality was that he always did exactly what was asked of him on the field. At such a young age, he never made things more complicated than necessary,” praises the trainer.
A rapid rise to the world top therefore seemed to be in the offing, but things turned out differently for the time being. Díaz joined Real Madrid in 2016 and is still waiting for his main squad debut there, though he netted four goals and five assists in his first season in eight Youth League appearances. He also regularly showed his good side with the reserve team, but there was nothing more in store for the time being. Instead, he has been loaned out four times in the past four years to CD Lugo in Spain, Corinthians to Brazil, his old club Cerro Porteno in Paraguay and most recently Club América in Mexico.
Sergio Díaz made his debut with Cerro Porteno at the age of fifteen.
So what exactly happened? Jara Séguier goes back in time for the answer. To the 2015 Under-17 World Cup to be exact. He then coached the U23 team of Paraguay and Diaz was his star player. “At the time, he was already regularly active in the Under-20s as a 17-year-old, so he had a big advantage over the rest. He was our star and everyone knew that several scouts lined the field for him with Real Madrid as the main contender. I was very happy when I heard that they wanted him because we had a very good group then and those guys deserved a good chance at big clubs.”
In his first year in the Spanish capital, Díaz scored 5 goals in 36 appearances for the B-squad Real Madrid Castilla, before being loaned to second division Lugo. There, however, he suffered a serious cruciate ligament injury in November 2017, which kept him sidelined for ten months. He struggled to get fit again and could therefore not make the difference with the Brazilian superpower Corinthians. That team then decided to gamble on young talent and with Díaz they thought they had brought in someone who could make the difference.
“I saw him play live for the first time in 2016,” freelance journalist Tomas Rosalino recalls in conversation with Goal and Football zone. The Brazilian has been closely following Corinthians since 2015 and remembers how Cerro Porteno played against the Brazilians in the Copa Libertadores. “Basically, he pretty much destroyed Corinthians on his own when he was 17 years old. He was without a doubt the best player on the field. Tite (now national coach and then trainer of Corinthians, ed.) also praised him afterwards, so I am sure that is the reason that Corinthians wanted to hire him two years later, even though he was not in top shape at the time. ”
Díaz made a big impression in the Copa Libertadores game against Corinthians, who happily took him on loan from Real Madrid two years later.
Rosalino knows that there are certain stereotypes in South American football and calls Díaz the exception to the rule. “Brazilians have tricks, Uruguayans and Argentines play directly and with passion, while Paraguay is known for its defenders. The best attacker in their history is Roque Santa Cruz, but he is also dwarfed by Sergio Díaz in terms of dribbling ability,” praises Rosario, who still clearly remembers the duel between Cerro Porteno and Corinthians. “He kept claiming the ball and was so good that day that Corinthians just took his serious knee injury for granted two years later.”
That turned out to be the wrong choice, as Díaz hadn’t played in six months when he arrived at Corinthians in July 2018 and wouldn’t be back on the pitch until September. In the end, due to backlashes to the knee, he would only play four games in Brazil. Moreover, in addition to physical complaints, Díaz also started to have more and more trouble with his self-confidence. “I spoke to him once in the mixed zone and he was suddenly a kid again. He was extremely timid,” Rosalino recalled. “He just said he hoped he could still make it happen in Brazil. He talked about knee pain, how much he missed training and how tough the next few days after the game would be. I really felt sorry for him. He has the right work ethic and does his best, but was never able to deliver what Corinthians hoped to see from him.”
After that, the now 23-year-old Díaz did not fare much better. He briefly returned to Cerro, mainly made the news there by breaking the lockdown rules and he also did not go further than eight games at Club America in Mexico. He will soon rejoin Real Madrid’s reserve team, which will most likely rent him out again or leave him permanently if a suitable club comes along. Díaz still has a profile on the club’s site describing him as an ‘attacking-minded footballer with great ball control; a powerful, fast striker, very tricked and purposeful’, but the chances of him ever representing the first team are getting smaller by the day.
The severe knee injury has not helped Díaz in the least, but according to the experts that is not the only problem.
“In retrospect, he was a bit too young when he went to Europe,” said Jara Saguier. “He had very little experience with professional football, while the tournaments with the national youth teams ensured that he had little time to prepare for his switch,” the then youth national coach muses aloud. “Here he was the big star and in Madrid he was just one of many. In addition, far from home he had to cope all by himself and that has clearly been very hard for him. I’ve kind of lost track of him since he left for Spain, but of course that serious injury didn’t help him either. When you come back from such a serious knee injury, you never know if you will ever be the same injury as before.”
Rosalino agrees. “Real Madrid should be the final destination for a top footballer. He had one good season in the Copa Libertadores and nothing else. That’s why I think he took the step too quickly. If he had stayed longer in South America to play more matches, he would be a better footballer now,” says the journalist, who does not completely write Díaz off yet. “He is still only 23 years old, so anything is possible. It must be very difficult for him psychologically to deal with this. He was so good at a very young age that everyone said he would be the future of Paraguay, but that’s not going to be him because of all the setbacks.”
Rosalino does not think that the single A-international from Paraguay will still live up to those enormous expectations, but believes that Díaz should be able to compete in a competition such as the Eredivisie. “Real Madrid is not going to be him anymore, but there are plenty of fun competitions in Europe for him. Or he goes to Brazil, where he can play a hundred or more games in two years. Then the world will look very different,” he concludes, while Jara Seguier also places full responsibility on Díaz. “He just has to play matches and where that will be is entirely up to him. He’s a born star, so now he has to take some time for himself and decide what he really wants. He needs to focus on his own game and think carefully about his next step. Sergio remains a great player and I am sure he will find a way to overcome this difficult period.”