Diego Luna is everywhere these days.
You’ve probably spotted the tattooed visage of Real Salt Lake’s playmaker in one place or another across the multimedia landscape lately: bank commercials, beer ads and shoe-company promos, public service announcements promoting mental health, a role on the ‘Men in Blazers’ podcasting network, a central place in U.S. Soccer’s rollout of the national teams’ new kits, moving first-person essays on The Players’ Tribune, interviews on mainstream platforms like The Pat McAfee Show and too many other outlets (both English- and Spanish-language) to count. And of course, ample placement on this very website as well.
How many North American soccer players get accosted by TMZ at the airport? Luna, for one. He’s now recognizable enough that a reporter with the infamous celebrity tabloid peppered him with a few questions when he was passing through Los Angeles during the offseason – and where he and RSL will return this weekend, to visit the LA Galaxy in a Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire showdown at Dignity Health Sports Park (7 pm ET | Apple TV).
“It's been cool – stressful, a lot of travel, not too much sleep,” Luna told MLSsoccer.com of fame’s newfound demands on his schedule during a swing through Indio, California in preseason.
“I think it's part of it, right? Once you do well on the field, things start to happen off the field. And I think that's really cool.”
Staying humble
On that occasion, Luna was speaking pitchside at the Empire Polo Club after a preseason scrimmage vs. the Galaxy, his 2-year-old son Manolo happily sprinting across the venue’s lush grass in front of him. Luna had just come from one set of promotional commitments involving the USMNT and Telemundo, and would fulfill a few more at the NBA All-Star Game a few days later, all the while managing a nagging knee issue that eventually sidelined him for the first few weeks of the MLS regular season.
Here, Luna had several members of his family in attendance, and for a few brief moments on a sunny winter morning in the Coachella Valley, all the glitz and hype took a back seat to something simpler.
“Every opportunity they get to come out here and watch me and watch soccer in general, they love it,” said Luna, whose father and siblings all played and coach the sport. “It's a soccer family, and we just love to be out here, be on the grass.
“Just coming here, spending time with the family, staying at a hotel, being with them, going to eat at restaurants and everything, I think that's one of the best feelings.”
National profile
Moments like these help ground Luna amid a FIFA World Cup year’s particular blend of euphoric intensity.
In the runup to a massive tournament piled high with expectations, Luna has become one of the faces of the US men’s national team – and even MLS as a whole, thanks to his vibrant attacking style, compelling backstory and yes, that distinctive look.
Though close observers of the youth game had eyes on his talent way back in his adolescent years, Luna truly burst onto the scene in January of last year.
That’s when he shook off a broken nose, which he later called “life-changing,” to play the game-winning assist in a USMNT win over Costa Rica that quickly entered program lore. Postgame, head coach Mauricio Pochettino cheekily praised Luna’s “big balls” and fast-tracked him to a key role at last summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup.
“It's been a full 360, man. I think I've been getting recognized, and not only here in Utah,” he told MLSsoccer.com on Friday, “in different malls across the states and different coffee shops and stuff like that. So I think it's a blessing, something I definitely dreamed of. But this is just the beginning.”
No guarantees
There’s a contradiction at the heart of Luna’s breakthrough.
The heart and commitment – desperation, even – with which he plays made such an impression on Pochettino in large part because the Argentine believed the USMNT as a whole had grown complacent, overly comfortable. Promoting Luna helped Pochettino drive home the point that nobody's spot was safe, that he’d spotted plenty of MLS standouts ready to step up if the more established names weren’t hungry enough.
Even as Luna’s name began to ring out, his face splashed across posters and television screens, ‘Poch’ left him off the March roster for high-profile friendlies vs. Belgium and Portugal. It was due mainly to the aforementioned knee issue – “an unfortunate injury at the wrong time,” in Luna’s words – yet the coach made sure to warn his entire player pool about the importance of going all-out at all times.
“We have all the information. They cannot cheat us,” said Pochettino, who later made a point to say that even featuring in a photo shoot for the new kit release was no assurance of a World Cup place. “It’s important to always train, giving your best. It’s not to say, ‘OK, I am at my club, I’ll give 50 percent. Because after, in the national team, I am going to play 100 percent.’ No. I want the player to play his best.”
Luna’s taking nothing for granted. Just this past Wednesday, for example, he fell ill and was unable to hold down any food or water all day, yet still logged a full 90 minutes in RSL’s 2-0 home loss to defending MLS Cup presented by Audi champions Inter Miami.
“Nothing is guaranteed. You know, a picture doesn't write stories, a picture doesn't write a legacy,” he said of his rising media profile. “For me to be a part of that is a blessing. But at the back of my mind, that's nothing to me. It's about being able to be on that pitch when that whistle blows in the summer.
“That's the thing I'm working towards, and to make that picture have a meaning behind it.”
Forming connections
Still, Luna's evolution into a de facto pitchman for a World Cup host nation eager to push further into the mainstream makes a great deal of sense. His blend of skill and grit resonates among casuals and USMNT hardcores alike, and his rise was a timely boost for a fanbase hungry for hope, disillusioned with underperformance at the 2024 Copa América, the program’s biggest test of the current cycle.
This is a player who celebrated his first goal of the current season with an exuberant rendition of ‘the Big Guy Dance’ from Ice Spice and SpongeBob SquarePants. Somehow, even with that heavily inked skin and rare creative skill set, he’s more relatable than most.
“I think it's about me just being a human being,” Luna said. “I'm very humble. I like to connect with people on a daily basis, whether it's about normal [things], cars, jobs, whatever – coffees, whatever you want to talk about. I'm a very normal, kind of chill dude, I guess.
“So I think that's what a lot of people see in me. They don't think of me as this super high-end, like, soccer player. They think of me as just a normal human being who happens to work very hard and be good at soccer. So I think that's something they can connect with.”
One step at a time, from here to the World Cup, and beyond.
“I'm still figuring it out. I'm 22 years old, right?” said Luna back in February. “But I’ve found a big path, and I think for me, a lot of it’s making sure my head's in the right space, which has been very difficult with a lot of the attention, a lot of the media, a lot of the pressure, away from family, the stress.
“And then just balancing that, I think family is the number one thing, right? I think coming out here and having my family around brings that extra happiness that nothing compares to.”
