Diego

Diego Ribas da Cunha (born 28 February 1985), commonly known as just Diego or Diego Ribas, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

He developed while in the Santos youth system, making his first team debut at the age of 16 in the Rio-São Paulo Championship in 2002 and in the same year won the domestic Campeonato Brasileiro championship.

He, Robinho, Elano and Alex were known as a famous group when they played for Santos.

A full international for Brazil since 2003, Diego earned 34 caps and scored four international goals.

He was part of the Brazilian squads which finished as runners-up at the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup, won the Copa América in 2004 and 2007, and earned a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics.

At age six, Diego started to show his talent when training with Comercial FC in Ribeirão Preto.

After joining another team, São Carlos, when he was nine, Diego decided to take trials in the hope of impressing a bigger club.

Diego was first signed by the São Paulo team Santos at the age of 12.

Diego began his career at Santos, where he won two Campeonato Brasileiro Série A titles before moving to Porto in 2004.

Despite winning further trophies in Portugal, his personal form dropped.

Diego was then signed by Primeira Liga club Porto in July 2004 as a replacement and the potential successor for Deco, but he could not produce the same calibre of performances as he did at Santos.

Diego made his debut for Porto in a 1–1 draw against União de Leiria on 22 August and on 30 October, he scored his first goal for Porto in a 2–2 draw against Nacional.

As Porto triumphed in the Intercontinental Cup against Once Caldas via a penalty shootout, Diego was sent off for swearing at goalkeeper Juan Carlos Henao after scoring his effort.

Journalist Tim Vickery ascribed this action to Diego's experiences against the team in the previous season's Copa Libertadores, in which the physical Colombian side eliminated Santos in the quarter-finals.

In his first season at Porto, Diego made 30 appearances, scoring two goals against Sporting CP and Braga.

In 2005–06, however, he did not maintain a stable place in the Porto team under coach Co Adriaanse and also found life difficult at Porto.

He eventually left the club to sign with Werder Bremen.

In May 2006, Diego signed a contract with German Bundesliga side Werder Bremen until 2010 for a transfer fee of €6 million.

His first match for Bremen came in the DFB-Ligapokal.

Werder Bremen won the cup, beating Bayern Munich in the final on 5 August.

The 2006–07 Bundesliga season began well for Diego.

He scored the first goal and set up two more for Bremen in their 4–2 win over Hannover 96, on 13 August.

In his second match in the Bundesliga, he set up both goals in the 2–1 win over Bayer Leverkusen.

Thanks to his good performances in August, both in the Bundesliga and in the Ligapokal, Diego won the August Player of the Month award.

As the Bundesliga season progressed, Diego made several amazing performances and became one of the most valuable players for Bremen, along with his teammate Torsten Frings.

Together, they were called the "two motors of Bremen's midfield".

In October 2006, he won a second Player of the Month award, as well as again in December 2006.

He was then named as the Best Player of the first half of the Bundesliga season.

Werder Bremen finished in third place in Group A in the Champions League group stages, and they moved to the UEFA Cup, where they reached the semi-finals after beating AZ in the quarter-finals due in part to Diego's creative play.

On 15 April, Diego again played well, scoring in the 2–0 win over Borussia Dortmund.

Five days later, on 20 April, Bremen played against Alemannia Aachen.

Although Diego's performance was good, he did not score until stoppage time when he scored from 62.5 metres, which later was elected as goal of the year.

Bremen won the game 3–1 and topped the table with 60 points.

Following his good performances in the first half of the Bundesliga, Diego got called up to the Brazil national team in November.

After the 2006–07 season ended, Diego won the Bundesliga Player of the Season award organised by popular magazine kicker.

He received just over 50 percent of the votes.

Unfortunately, his team did not win the Bundesliga after finishing third in the table, behind champions VfB Stuttgart and Schalke 04.

After two seasons, he moved for €6 million to Werder Bremen where his form improved, winning domestic honours and helping them to the 2009 UEFA Cup Final.

He also won honours at Atlético Madrid, including the UEFA Europa League in 2012.

Since 2016, he has played for Brazilian club Flamengo, with whom he has won the Copa Libertadores among other domestic and international honours.