Is it too much to ask of â¨a Brazilian to score a simple tap-in occasionally? Clearly, for Diego, that would be unacceptable. In 2007, the midfield craftsman scored â¨the Bundesliga goal of the season for Werder Bremen as Alemannia Aachen flung their goalkeeper Kristian Nicht upfield for a corner in the dying moments. The ball broke to Diego, who â despite the best efforts of opposition midfielder Matthias Lehmann â nonchalantly made the score 3-1... from 69 yards out.
âÂÂSoccer is always about feelings,â Diego tells FFT in â¨a rare interview. âÂÂYou have to be happy and free to play at your best and what happened at that precise moment was â¨a consequence of that.
âÂÂWhen we were defending the corner, I saw their keeper â¨in our box and knew I had a chance to catch him out. It was a case of everything happening perfectly. My first touch was good, the ball sat up in the right position and I just hit it.
âÂÂIt all happened very quickly and it took me a few minutes â¨to believe it had happened.
âÂÂI didnâÂÂt know if it was possible, but I trusted myself and believed I could do it. If â¨I tried it today, I might need a few goes! It is hard to get power and direction on a shot like that â but they both came together.
âÂÂSome people think tricky things like that happen more in training, but it is actually much easier to do them in a match because you are 100 per cent concentrated and so your â¨body responds to your mind.
âÂÂIt was definitely one of the best moments in football for me as it felt so natural and was the consequence of this one idea I had. Who knows if IâÂÂll score one like that again... itâÂÂs difficult but not impossible.âÂÂ
Interview: Titus Chalk. Illustration: German Aczel. From the March 2013 edition of FourFourTwo. Subscribe!
