After more than two decades linked to elite football, it’s time to stop. Diego López hangs up his boots. This was confirmed this Thursday by the Galician goalkeeper at the La Unión-El Progreso forum, which held a colloquium-chat with the footballer for the 115th anniversary of the media outlet. “It was time to say goodbye and do other things,” the man from Lugo stated that he does not close the door to being a coach in the future.
“I think I have to go through a training stage, see where I can fit in, what can fulfill me more as a professional. Now I am training, I am at the second level,” he acknowledges. In this regard, the man from Paradal understands that it is important to “meet the training deadlines.” “Very few have the opportunity to take charge of a great team from the first moment,” he adds.
After training in the Lugo youth academy and making his debut with Real Madrid in 2006, he signed the following year for Villarreal where he stayed until 2012. The Spanish goalkeeper achieved a runner-up league finish with the ‘yellow submarine’ in the 2007-08 season. , in addition to improving “in a beastly way” as a goalkeeper. Later, he would join Sevilla, a team in which he only played 12 games in one year, under the shadow of Andrés Palop and Javier Varas.
Diego López returned to Real Madrid in 2013, a time in which he managed to put Iker Casillas on the bench, while Mourinho led the merengue team. This period was one of “continuous learning” for Diego López. “It was a unique opportunity, I dedicated myself to what I did, to train and defend the club’s colors as best as possible, but it is true that that stage was very high in the media and I learned to value other things, to see how certain issues were resolved.”
The Galician goalkeeper also passed through Italy, when he signed for Milan in 2014 and remained with the Rossoneri team until 2016, after the emergence of Donarumma. In his last years as a professional, he returned to the Spanish league: first providing his services to Espanyol and then to Rayo Vallecano. The parakeet cast was one of the casts “in which I felt most recognized,” according to the Galician.
The footballer spent six seasons wearing the blue and white shirt and played a total of 213 games with this jersey until June 2022, when he signed for Rayo in the 2022-23 season. In the Madrid team, he played five games in total: two in the league and three in the Copa del Rey. Diego López left the Vallecas club last summer.
In his record, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey that he won with Real Madrid in 2014 stand out, as well as the 2007 League also with the white team. Likewise, the Second Division with Espanyol in 2021, the year in which he won the Zamora Trophy, and being the oldest goalkeeper to play a game in the First Division (41 years and 213 days) are other achievements worth highlighting in his career. Diego López professional.
The former Real Madrid goalkeeper also spoke about his time with the Spanish team, since he was international under Vicente del Bosque, playing in qualifying matches for the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 and being among those chosen to play in the Confederations Cup in 2009.
However, Diego López did not end up competing in the event in which Spain was proclaimed world champion to the detriment of Víctor Valdés. “It’s clear that there was a teammate who deserved it as much as me, or more,” he explains about the Barça legend.
“In the end it was a shame because Spain was champion and it would have been wonderful to live that experience and be world champion.” “Football is like that. You have to understand these types of decisions by coaches,” he says.