wanting more than the club were willing to pay<\/a>. His next contract always promised to be the biggest of his career. Bayern will pay it to a player who turns 29 in January. If a forward who requires a physical edge to torment defenders declines, it will not be on Liverpool\u2019s watch or their wage bill. Sadio Mane joined Bayern from Liverpool soon after his 30th birthday and soon looked a diminished force.<\/p>\nIf there is a theory Liverpool got the best years of Diaz\u2019s career, there may be an asterisk attached to that. His best was superb, and yet his return of 41 goals in 148 games is decent but scarcely comparable with Mohamed Salah\u2019s output.<\/p>\n
Diaz\u2019s first few months at Anfield featured two cup finals in which he was arguably the best player on the pitch and yet both finished 0-0: against Chelsea in the 2022 Carabao and FA Cup games at Wembley. There were times when his influence was not reflected on the scoresheet. Arne Slot\u2019s surprise decision to reinvent Diaz as a striker last season brought a career-best 17 goals, some of them a centre-forward\u2019s tap-ins. Nevertheless, they came in flurries amid droughts, and the presumption is that Bayern have earmarked him for a role back on the flanks, rather than replacing Harry Kane.<\/p>\n
![\"Diaz](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/b9c0e1ef3db995e3a4fa589c5cf1da03Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzUzNzE3NTE2-2.79894315.jpg\")
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open image in gallery<\/p>\n
Diaz won the Premier League with Liverpool last season (PA Wire)<\/p>\n
Diaz\u2019s most devastating display last season came in his more familiar position: he kick-started Slot\u2019s reign by eviscerating Manchester United at Old Trafford in August. One of Slot\u2019s standout Champions League results came courtesy of Diaz, too, with his hat-trick in the 4-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen.<\/p>\n
So his quality was apparent, even if Slot\u2019s tendency to view Cody Gakpo solely as a left winger invited questions about what happened when other centre-forward options arrived, as Ekitike has done. The question that may remain unanswered is what Diaz might have done in a full, uninterrupted campaign.<\/p>\n
His 2024-25 was split between time in the centre and the wings. His 2023-24 was affected by the trauma of his parents being kidnapped in Colombia. He scored an emotional late equaliser at Luton while his father was still missing, but only he can say how much of a toll that time took out of him.<\/p>\n
![\"Luis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Pre-Season-Friendly-Liverpool-v-AC-Milan-a0sbiusf.jpeg\")
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open image in gallery<\/p>\n
Luis Diaz during Liverpool\u2019s pre-season tour (Reuters)<\/p>\n
His 2022-23 season was marred by five months on the sidelines with a knee problem. It came, too, after his auspicious first half-season and then, amid the team\u2019s troubles, some fine form in the autumn of 2022. Even in the 4-1 demolition suffered at the hands of Napoli, one of the lowest points of Klopp\u2019s reign, Diaz was outstanding.<\/p>\n
At that stage, it seemed possible to envisage him becoming a Liverpool great. He won\u2019t leave as one, though interest from Barcelona and a status as Bayern\u2019s third most expensive signing ever indicate that he can be one of the game\u2019s finest wingers. Liverpool may feel Diaz could be scintillating, but his brilliance was sporadic. Maybe that is in part the nature of his position. But he wasn\u2019t consistent across campaigns and, as his willingness to leave and the interest in him indicated, he wouldn\u2019t be a constant presence for years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-34190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Bayern](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/5f4061f99bd67320df0ab78876b118a7Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzUzNzAyMTU0-2.78555675.jpg\")
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