Towel in summer 2009
©IMAGO
On Saturday evening, Diego will run for the last time with the Werder jersey in the Weser Stadium in Bremen. At the farewell game of the Brazilian, numerous former teammates are expected to honor the 40-year-old’s career ended two years ago. At his active time, he was one of the best players in the Bundesliga and washed Werder the highest transfer fee in the history of the club in 2009 when moving to Juventus Turin. The offensive artist now looked back on this change as well as his step to VfL Wolfsburg a year later.
At that time, Juventus put 27 million euros to get rid of Diego from Werder. The playmaker had played 54 goals and 42 templates in 132 games for the green-whites and thus played into the field of vision several top clubs. The fact that it ultimately became Juventus was on the one hand with his former national team colleague Ronaldo, who recommended Serie A to him, and on the other hand due to the efforts of the Bianconeri.
“It was really important, yes,” said Diego in the “Kicker” interview about the advice of the Brazilian striker. “But it was even more important how Juve had worked hard – I have been contacted every three months since my second Bremen season. They called again and again: ‘You are the best player in the world. We need one like you.’ That made up the difference. “
At that time there was also interest from FC Bayern, as Diego admitted in the course of this. Even a meeting with his father with Uli Hoeneß came about. In the summer of 2009, the Munich team had just missed the championship and instead signed Mario Gómez and Arjen Robben. VfL Wolfsburg had secured the championship, where Diego was supposed to end up in Italy (seven goals, 16 templates) a year later after a season mixed for its circumstances.
Diego about Wolfsburg change 2010: “It was about a high sum money”
When asked whether a comeback at Werder was also up for debate, Diego referred to the financial circumstances in Bremen. “I think that was the point why Werder didn’t offer me to come back. It was about a high sum money. Schalke, for example, would have offered around 20 million euros at the time, as is well known, Wolfsburg was awarded the contract.” It was ultimately 15.5 million for the wolves, the highest sum in club history at that time.
“In my view, I would not have been able to pay so much for Werder. And in Wolfsburg, my friends Josué and Grafite played, plus Mandzukic and Dzeko, who had extended his contract. I saw the opportunity to be successful there,” said Diego, who was to stay in Wolfsburg until 2014. In 87 games he scored 24 goals and gave 21 templates, but he won a title there, unlike all other stations.
With Atlético Madrid, Diego Spanish champion (2013/14) and Europa-League winner (2011/12), with Werder he won the DFB Cup (2008/09), with Fenerbahce the Turkish Cup (2014/15) and with Flamengo Rio de Janeiro (2019, 2020), as with FC Santos (2002, 2004) Twice Brazilian champions and Copa liberadores winners (2018/19, 2021/22).
Nevertheless, there were things in his career that he could not achieve: “I could have played a world championship, I was close. I was also close to Atlético Madrid to win the Champions League. Sure, I was certainly not able to realize everyone of my dreams that I had. But that’s okay for me because I really did my best. In the end, as a player, you are always dependent on the trainer. Brazilian national team always had a lot of options in my position.
