Liverpool sign Luis Diaz: Comparisons with Luis Figo and malnutrition concerns

Luis Diaz scored for Porto in both Champions League group games against AC Milan

Signing for Liverpool is the latest step in a remarkable journey for Luiz Diaz, the Colombian forward who was once so slight his coaches feared he was suffering from malnutrition.

He has since experienced life in Europe - having spent three years with Porto - but aged 18 had never left his own country, despite being raised next to the border with Venezuela in north-eastern Colombia.

His first experience of travelling abroad came in mid-2015, when the young winger was called up to represent his country at the Copa America of Indigenous People.

As a member of the Wayuu - the largest indigenous community in Colombia - he could not have been more excited after impressing local legend Carlos Valderrama.

"The competition would be held in Chile so we took a five-hour flight there and you could see his eyes light up with that experience," former Colombia international John 'Pocillo' Diaz, who coached that side, told BBC Sport.

"Lucho would ask us if he could have the same meal more than once. He was this humble."

Though that has not changed, one thing certainly has - Diaz has made many other trips.

And now he will journey to Liverpool, signing for an initial £37.5m, having enjoyed the best six months of his career.

Diaz was unstoppable during last summer's Copa America, finding the net against the likes of Brazil and Argentina and finishing the tournament as joint top scorer alongside Lionel Messi.

He has followed that with 14 goals in 18 league appearances for Porto this season, as well as scoring home and away against AC Milan in the Champions League.

The 25-year-old quickly became the next big thing in Portuguese football and Liverpool decided to move quickly to ensure they did not miss out. Other clubs - including Tottenham, Newcastle and Everton - had all been linked with a bid.

His next challenge is to follow in the footsteps of compatriots Radamel Falcao and James Rodriguez, former Porto stars who made major impacts in Europe's top leagues.

'He seemed to have malnutrition problems'

One of Diaz's hobbies as a child was to watch large trains go by his small village of Barrancas three times a day, carrying coal from the Cerrejon, one of the world's biggest open pit coal mines. Most of the product was loaded onto ships and sent to Europe.

As trains moved through, Diaz often caught himself wondering if he would ever have a chance to see more of the world too.

Very few kids born in the La Guajira region actually have. To this day, it remains one of the most neglected areas by the Colombian government - where 4,770 Wayuu children died from malnutrition between 2008 and 2016.

The humanitarian crisis still persists and has drawn attention from organisations such as the United Nations and Human Rights Watch.

When 'Pocillo' Diaz first met the young winger in 2015, the coach was astonished by how underweight he looked.

"For a moment, we thought it would be very difficult for him to perform because Lucho seemed to have malnutrition problems - he was very skinny and lost the duels with other players," he recalled.

"But despite that, he managed to stand out among 400 candidates and make the 26-man squad. He initially played as a striker, but had one big issue in his game. He used to run with the ball with his head down, so sometimes he didn't even notice that he had reached the end of the pitch.

"He was very fast and had a very good technique, the ball would stick to his foot like glue."

Ultimately, Colombia lost the Copa America of Indigenous People's final 1-0 to Paraguay, but Diaz ended the competition with two goals to his name and a bright future ahead.

'What can't he do?'

As he returned from Chile, he did not head back to Barrancas this time. Instead, he signed for second-tier club Barranquilla FC, an affiliate of Junior FC. He had made such an impression that he even led the team to create a new age group in order to accommodate him.

"When we brought him in, Lucho had turned 18, but the youth tournaments here in Colombia are divided between the under-20 and under-17 age groups," said Fernel Diaz, Barranquilla youth football co-ordinator.

"He was not ready to play with the former and was too old for the latter, so we had to come up with a solution. We then decided to launch an under-18 team to give him and other boys some playing time.

"He didn't stay around long, however. By the end of that year, he was already featuring for our under-20 side."

At this point, there was no doubt left about his talent. Diaz still needed, though, to strengthen his body, which prompted Barranquilla to start a plan that saw him gain 10kg through a diet that included eating pasta during breakfast.

In 2017, he was on the move to Junior and did not look back, going on to win the Colombian league and reach the Copa Sudamericana final the following year.

He would score his first national team goal in a 2-1 defeat by South Korea in 2019, becoming the first footballer from La Guajira to do so since the 1990s. Former Colombia boss Carlos Queiroz, who also led Portugal and Real Madrid - and worked at Manchester United - compared him to the legendary Luis Figo.

He had offers from Zenit St Petersburg and Cardiff City among many others but Diaz ended up choosing Porto in a 7m euros deal that same season. He was never likely to stay long, given his prodigious talent.

"Lucho can shoot from distance, he's comfortable with his two feet, he can dribble, he can open up defences, he can score. What can't he do?" 'Pocillo' concluded. "But, believe it or not, he's yet to reach his ceiling."

A version of this article was first published in September 2021.

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