DIEGO RIBAS DA CUNHA

'Diego Ribas da Cunha' (born 28 February, 1985), also known as 'Diego', is a Brazilian professional footballer who currently plays for Werder Bremen in the German Bundesliga. He has played over 20 times for Brazil.

Contents

Profile

Werder Bremen

Honours

Statistics

References

External links

Profile

Born in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, he was signed by the São Paulo team Santos FC at the age of 12. Diego developed 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 he won the domestic Campeonato Brasileiro championship. Diego was called up for the Brazil national squad for the Copa América 2004 tournament, and he was instrumental in securing the tournament victory for Brazil when he scored in the penalty shootout against Argentina in the final. He and Robinho were known as a famous duo when they played for Santos FC.
Diego almost joined Tottenham Hotspur in 2003 but the move collapsed at the last minute when the Santos FC chairman refused to sell him.[1]
He was transferred to Portuguese club FC Porto in July 2004. Diego did not maintain a stable place in the Porto team under coach Co Adriaanse. And because of that, Diego was left out of the Brazil squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup tournament. He was though a substitute in a friendly match against England on 1 June 2007, and scored a last minute equaliser.

Werder Bremen

In May 2006, Diego signed a contract with Werder Bremen until 2010.^[1]
His first match for Werder Bremen came in the Premiere Ligapokal (Premiere League Cup). Werder Bremen won the cup beating FC Bayern Munich in the final on 5 August.
The 2006/2007 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 Premiere Ligapokal, he won the August Player of the Month award.^[2] As the Bundesliga season went on, Diego made several amazing performances and became one of the most valuable players for Werder Bremen, along with his team-mate Torsten Frings. They are called the "two motors of Bremen's midfield".
In October, 2006, he won a second Player of the Month award and again in December, 2006. He was then named as the Best Player of the first half of the Bundesliga.
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, beating AZ Alkmaar 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 an amazing goal from 62.5 metres. 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 Brazilian national football team in November.
Interest from Real Madrid was reported in late April. But Werder Bremen's manager Klaus Allofs said that they would not be listening to any offers for Diego. Also there were rumours of interest from Barcelona but nothing was confirmed.
After the 2006-07 season ended Diego won the Bundesliga Player of the Season award organised by Kicker magazine.^[3] He got just over 50 percent of the votes.

Honours

★ '2000 Salerno Mundialito' with Brazil

★ '2001 South American Championship U-17' with Brazil

★ '2002 Toulon Tournament' with Brazil

★ '2002 Campeonato Brasileiro' with Santos FC

★ '2004 Copa América' with Brazil

★ '2004 Portuguese Supercup' with FC Porto

★ '2004 Intercontinental Cup (Toyota Cup)' with FC Porto

★ '2006 SuperLiga' with FC Porto

★ '2006 Premiere Ligapokal' with Werder Bremen

★ '2007 Copa América' with Brazil

Statistics

'All-Time Club Performance'

Club	Season	Domestic League		Domestic Cup		Continental Competition		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
'Werder Bremen'	06-07	33	13	0	0	10	1	46	14
Total		33	13	0	0	10	1	36	14
'FC Porto'	05-06	18	1			4	1
	04-05	30	3			6	1
Total		48	4			10	2
'Santos FC'	2003	33	9
	2002	22	8
Total		55	17
Career Totals		136	34			20	3

References

1. Aaron Marcus, FC Porto: Diego To Werder Bremen, ''Goal.com'', May 20, 2006
2. [2] fussballer-des-monats.de, January 19, 2006
3. Bundesliga Player of the Season, ''Eurosport.com'', May 29, 2007

External links

★ Players official homepage.

★ Werder Bremen profile.

★ Career stats. at ''FootballDatabase.com''

★ Photo of Diego. at ''UEFA.com''

★ Chat with Diego, in September, 2005. at ''UEFA.com''

★ Chat with Diego, in September 2006. at '' UEFA.com''