It's a rather unique journey that Mariano Diaz has had during his career. Trained at Real Madrid, he was sold in 2017 to Olympique Lyonnais for 8 million euros where he achieved the only full year of his career (21 goals and 6 assists in 48 matches). A crazy season for the Dominican striker who will return to Real Madrid for 21.5 million euros after one year and will recover the number 7 left by Cristiano Ronaldo who left for Juventus.
However, his career did not take off. Although he now has 3 Spanish championships and 2 Champions Leagues in his list of achievements, he played little with Casa Blanca and at the end of his contract, he left free for Seville where he only stayed one year for 13 matches played and zero goals. Having remained a year without playing, the native of Premià de Mar trained this summer with Deportivo Alavés, 15th in the last La Liga exercise. Interesting in what he had shown, he had convinced the Basques to sign him for two years.
Mariano Diaz is struggling at the moment
His teammate Jon Guridi had also praised his qualities in an interview for Flash Score at the start of the season:I think so. He has a lot of ability, he has already shown it and I think he has arrived in a good place, with people close to him who can make him feel good, like at home. I think it fits very well. He's a very good boy, he trains very well and I think in pre-season we also saw that he has a lot of punch. He's a different player.»
“Technically, he is a spectacular attacker. He's a different player and he will bring us a lot. I am also happy that he can enjoy playing football. We realize the importance of something when we miss something. Mariano missed football for a while, but it's like riding a bike: you don't forget him. We will try to make him give the best of himself. He is doing everything he can to achieve this, and we will need him greatly throughout the season», underlined for his part coach Eduardo Coudet.
If the start of the season for Deportivo Alavés is rather good with a tenth place in La Liga, Mariano Diaz is struggling to do well. Used 7 times this season, he has played 222 minutes of play and only started 2 matches. Unable to be very impactful, he also has to deal with competition from Toni Martínez and Lucas Boyé in his position. The first already has two goals and an offering when the second remains with one goal during the last match against Elche (3-1 victory). In addition, the 32-year-old striker is facing physical problems. Suffering from sciatic nerve pain, he missed the last championship match. While his competitors are gaining strength, Mariano Diaz will have to quickly recover and perform well so that the train does not leave without him.
