Diego López Noguerol (born 13 May 2002) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as either a right winger or a forward for

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

club

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. Nicknamed El Guajín, (The Kid in Asturian) Lopez has become a fan favorite at the Spanish giant.

Club career

Early career

Born in Turón, Mieres,

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

, López began playing football at the youth academy of FC Figueiredo where he scored more than 150 goals, and then Xeitosa CF where he scored 54 goals in his single season with them. His goalscoring earned him a move to the youth academy of Sporting de Gijón, followed by a short stint with

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, and finally moving to

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

in 2018.

Valencia

On 7 July 2021, after finishing his formation, López joined

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

and was initially assigned to moved to the reserves in Tercera División RFEF. He missed the opening matches of the season due to an injury, and made his senior debut on 8 October 2021, coming on as a second-half substitute for Fran Pérez and scoring a brace in a 5–0 home routing of UD Benigànim. López helped the B-side in their promotion to Segunda Federación with nine goals, and made his professional – and

– debut with Valencia on 29 August 2022, replacing Toni Lato late into a 1–0 loss to Atlético Madrid. He scored his first goal in the top tier on 21 May of the following year, netting the winner in a 1–0 home success over

. On 14 August 2023, López renewed his contract with the ''Che'' until 2026, being definitely promoted to the main squad.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Barcelona Youth * División de Honor: 2019–20, 2020–21 Valencia B * Tercera División RFEF: 2021–22 Spain U23 * Summer Olympics gold medal:

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

References

External links

Real Madrid profile
* * * *
Diego López
at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics
Diego López – COE – Paris 2024
2002 births Living people Footballers from Mieres, Asturias Spanish men's footballers Men's association football wingers Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda Federación players Tercera Federación players Valencia CF Mestalla footballers Valencia CF players Spain men's under-21 international footballers Footballers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Spain Olympic medalists in football Olympic gold medalists for Spain Medalists at the 2024 Summer Olympics 21st-century Spanish sportsmen {{Spain-footy-forward-stub