Diego Luna (soccer, born 2003)

American soccer player (born 2003)

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Diego Angel Luna (born September 7, 2003) is an American professional soccer player who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Major League Soccer club Real Salt Lake and the United States national team.

Club career

Born in Sunnyvale, California, Luna began his career with the Palo Alto Soccer Club at the age of 5. He joined the youth setup at Major League Soccer club San Jose Earthquakes in 2015. With the Earthquakes, Luna participated in various tournaments, including the Dallas Cup and Generation Adidas Cup. In 2018, Luna left the Earthquakes academy and joined the Barcelona Residency Academy, the Arizona based academy for Spanish club Barcelona.

El Paso Locomotive

On April 5, 2021, Luna signed a professional contract with USL Championship club El Paso Locomotive. He made his debut for the club on May 8 in their season opening 1–1 draw against New Mexico United. He came on as a 78th-minute substitute for Richie Ryan. Following the match, as well as the second against Rio Grande Valley Toros, Locomotive head coach Mark Lowry said, "He has the mentality to go to the very top and we’re gonna help him do that."

Luna scored his first professional goal for El Paso on June 3, the winning goal in a 1–0 road victory over Austin Bold. He headed in a crossed ball from Macauley King in the 56th minute to give his side all three points.

Real Salt Lake

On June 2, 2022, Luna transferred to Real Salt Lake in a USL record deal of $250,000. He made his debut as an 88th-minute substitute against Vancouver Whitecaps.

International career

Luna has received call-ups to camps with the United States under-14, under-17, and under-20 youth national teams.

In 2022, Luna featured prominently with the United States U-20 team that won the CONCACAF U-20 championship, securing berths for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics in the process.

Luna earned his first selection to the senior national team in January 2024.

On July 23, 2024, Luna, after declining to join as an alternate for the United States Olympic team that was set to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, he confirmed that he had not ruled out filing a one-time switch to FIFA switching his allegiance with Mexico.

On January 6, 2025, Luna was called up by Mauricio Pochettino for training camp and friendlies against Venezuela and Costa Rica. During the first half of the match against Costa Rica, Luna was elbowed in the face by a Costa Rican player and had his nose broken, but despite this Luna returned to the field to play through until halftime after having cotton shoved up his nostrils and changing to a fresh jersey after the previous had been bloodied. Luna provided an assist to Brian White's opening goal before going to the hospital for treatment after halftime, and in an interview following the end of the match which the United States won 3–0, Pochettino praised Luna's character and said that he had "big balls".

On June 5, Luna was selected by Pochettino to represent the United States in the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and on June 29, Luna scored his first international goal for the senior team when he scored the first goal of a 2–2 draw against Costa Rica in the quarter-finals, helping the United States to the penalty shoot-out which they won 4–3. On July 2, USMNT defeated Guatemala 2–1, with Luna scoring in the 4th and 15th minutes to mark his first international brace. The USMNT would go on to lose 2–1 in the final against Mexico.