From time to time, clubs appear in the leading European football championships that are seriously inferior to the leading teams in their financial capabilities. However, the competent work of the coach and the successful selection of unknown, but talented football players are able to create a combat-ready team, fighting on equal footing with the grandees of world football. Diego Tristan, whose biography is of interest, once played for such a team. The Spaniard’s best years are connected with Deportivo from A Coruña, who fought on equal terms with Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, awe in the Champions League.
Carier start
Diego Tristan is a soccer player born in a small town near Seville in 1976. Like all Andalusian boys, he dreamed of playing as part of one of the two big Seville clubs. In order to realize his goal, he entered the Betis Football Academy.
The attacker did not immediately reveal his potential. For a long time, up to 22 years old, he played for the backup team of Betis, who vegetated in the third most powerful league in Spain.
Tristan Diego did not stand out with crazy performance, but regularly scored at least ten goals per season. In the end, the Mallorca scouts turned their attention to a stable striker with excellent physical characteristics and excellent playing on the second floor.
Mallorca Star
So Diego Tristan went up and jumped up a notch, starting to play for the Double Mallorca, then playing in Segund - the second most powerful division in Spain.
Having changed the situation, the Andalusian opened up in a new way, began to play more actively, attack more aggressively and already in the first season sent 15 goals to the opponents' goal.
Thanks to the excellent game for the backup team, already in the next season he began to play for the main team of Mallorca on an ongoing basis. In the Premiere, the strongest league in Spain, Diego Tristan was not lost and continued to progress. Despite a tighter fight and a serious level of defense players, the forward continued to do his job and scored 18 goals in the first season for the new club.
Failed transition to Real Madrid
At the beginning of the 2000s, Real Madrid had problems with the second striker, Fernando Morientes, playing in tandem with Raul, according to the leadership, he did not meet the team’s tasks. Confident game Diego Tristan, who consistently shot the gates of rivals, liked the president of the Madrid club Lorenzo Sansa, and the striker was one step away from the transition to the Spanish super club. However, the president was dismissed, and the deal fell through.
In fact, for Diego Tristan, everything went perfectly. So he got the opportunity to play Deportivo, where he spent his best years and became one of the best forwards in Europe at the beginning of the decade.
Deportivo never ranked among the grandees of Spanish football, but in those years La Coruña had a great team, which included Roy Mackay, Valeron, and Jalminha. Unexpectedly for everyone in the 1999/2000 season, the humble club became the country's champion.
Golden years in A Coruña
Not lost in the composition of “Deportivo” and Diego Tristan, whose photo not so long ago was known only to friends and relatives. Despite competing with Roy Mackay for a place in the starting lineup, he did not miss his chances and managed to score 23 goals in all tournaments in the first season.
The very next year, he took a strong place on the field and became the main striker of the club. Despite the impressive dimensions, Diego Tristan possessed excellent equipment, was coordinated, was not afraid to go to the stroke. He worked perfectly without a ball, he was great at choosing a position and he ended up in the penalty area always where he needed to score a goal.
In the 2001/2002 season, he scored 32 goals in all tournaments, became the top scorer of the Spanish Premiere and earned a call to the national team.
Decline in results
Forwards are always the main objects of hunting defenders and are often injured. Sometimes an injury can be a serious obstacle to a career forward. Diego Tristan did not escape trouble. In one of the matches for the national team, he was injured, missed a lot of time, and this was used by his direct competitor for his place in the “Deportivo” Roy Mackay.
The Dutchman played well in his absence, and Diego Tristan began to spend more time on the bench and after recovering from the consequences of the injury.
Roy Macai soon left Deportivo, moving to Bavaria, but the Andalusian was never able to return to the same level. Its performance has fallen. Maybe age has already begun to affect. After all, the strength of Tristan was the game ahead of the opponent, which required sharpness, speed, which the forward had already begun to lose.
However, Diego played in the best Champions League season for Deportivo. The team from La Coruna in 2003/2004 then shone in the European arena. At one stage of the playoffs, the current Milan European Cup winner was defeated. Only in the semifinals in a bitter struggle, “Deportivo” and Diego Tristan lost to the future winner of the tournament - “Port”.
Wandering around europe
Together with Diego Tristan, a crisis overtook a club from La Coruña. The team began to crumble, the leaders left, and Deportivo became the most common middle peasant of the Premiere. Tristan returned to Mallorca, but completely lost his sniper qualities without scoring once in a season.
Having lost the confidence of the coach, the striker decided to try his luck in the Italian Serie A and accepted the Livorno invitation, which was looking for a replacement for the departed attack star. Tristan’s affairs didn’t work out; in twenty matches he scored only once.
After the season in Italy, he went to London, where he once again tried to reanimate his career as part of West Ham. He did not become a base player, as a rule he went out to strengthen the game from the bench.
After spending two pale seasons in Italy and England, the striker returned to Spain, where he ended his career in Cadiz, playing in the Segund.
Despite the short period of his fame, Diego Tristan was forever remembered for his excellent game, beautiful goals and remained in his memory one of the best strikers of the 2000s.