ORLANDO – Diego Luna has a tattoo on his leg and, of the seemingly infinite pieces of art on his body, it might just be the one he looks at most. It’s of the Joker, and it features the iconic quote from the Dark Knight: “Why so serious?” That quote has transcended that movie. For Luna, it’s a little bit more personal. In a world where things are often so filled with pressure, sometimes he finds it nice to remind himself that life – and, perhaps more importantly, soccer – are supposed to be fun.
On the field, that’s probably the most accurate way to describe Luna’s game: fun. He attempts things modern players don’t seem to try anymore. In a world in which players are coached to do things the right way, Luna often does things his way, the fun way. It’s a wonder that it was never coached out of him, and he himself has thought about why it wasn’t.
Luna is allowed to be Luna, good and bad, for one reason and one reason only: it tends to deliver magic in the end.
“No coach that has said anything to me or taken that away from me, and I think it’s because it works,” Luna tells GOAL during a break in the USMNT’s January camp. “If I can get 10 chances and eight of them mess up, that means those other two led to a goal or to an assist, right? Your coach definitely isn’t going to say anything about them!
“It’s me as a player, having the mentality to, in a sense, to just not care. I don’t care if it doesn’t always work. I’ll always do the defensive work and I’ll always do what you need me to do tactically, but when it comes to me and the attacking third, you’re not going to tell me what to do. I’m going to be myself. I’m going to express myself. I’ve got to where I’m at by doing what I know what to do, and I’m going to continue to do that and continue to grow that aspect of my game, because that’s what makes me me.”
Luna has gotten pretty damn far being himself. He won MLS Young Player of the Year in 2024 at Real Salt Lake, although he admits that he thought he wasn’t even that good. His “breakout” continued this January. Even with his nose bloodied and broken, Luna was able to provide that moment of magic.
Moments after taking an elbow to the face, cracking his nose and forcing him to switch out of a bloody shirt on the sidelines, Luna was teeing up Brian White for the U.S. men’s national team’s opening goal against Costa Rica in an eventual 3-0 victory Wednesday night. His nose was plugged up, but Luna was still smiling through it all. This is supposed to be fun, remember?
You can count USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino among his admirers. “Big balls,” Pochettino said with a laugh after Luna’s gutsy USMNT performance. It was the type of game that demonstrated that Luna isn’t just flash, but substance and toughness, too. That flash, though, is what sets him apart, even as he runs through defenses beaten and broken as he did on Wednesday night. It’s what, in his words, makes him him.
“All you need is one,” Luna says. “All you need is a one pass to happen, one shot to go in. And, even if you take 10 of them, all you need is one. That’s all you need.”
Luna has a big chance in front of him now, and it’s different than those he creates on the field. You don’t get 10 cracks at being a star, you get one – and Luna is ready for his opportunity