Christian Lionel Díaz (born 12 May 1976) is an Argentine

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and former player who played as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. He is the current manager of Paraguayan club Tembetary.

Playing career

Born in Florencio Varela Partido,

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Díaz started his career with

Club Atlético Independiente () is an Argentine professional sports club, which has its headquarters and stadium in Avellaneda, a city of the Buenos Aires Province. The club is best known for its Association football, football team, which plays in the Argentine Primera Divi ...

in 1995. In his first season as a professional, he helped ''El Diablo Rojo'' win the South American Supercup in an eventual 2–1 aggregate triumph against

Clube de Regatas do Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; ), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multi sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea. It was founded and named after the Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo n ...

(he did not take part in the final, however). He appeared in more than 150 official games with the club during his five-year spell. In 2000, Díaz moved to Italy and joined

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional association football, football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football league system, Italian fo ...

, only missing three

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

matches as the team finished in 12th position. In the following four years he played in Spain, representing

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Palma de Mallorca, ...

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 6 September 1909, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025– ...

Albacete Balompié Albacete Balompié is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Albacete, in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Founded on 5 July 1939, it currently plays in Segunda División, the second tier of Spanish foo ...

Ciudad de Murcia Club de Fútbol Ciudad de Murcia, usually abbreviated to Ciudad de Murcia, was a Spanish football club based in Murcia, in the namesake autonomous community. They played at the 16,000-seater ''Estadio de La Condomina''. Ciudad Murcia was reloc ...

and

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001 ...

, having little overall impact and only totalling 14

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 ...

appearances for the first and the third sides. Díaz returned to his country in 2005, successively representing

Club Olimpo Club Olimpo, usually referred to as Olimpo de Bahía Blanca, is an Argentine sports club based in the city of Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Province. The club was founded October 15th, 1910. Its primary activity is soccer. The club is recognized in ...

Club Atlético Huracán Club Atlético Huracán () is an Argentine sports club from the Parque Patricios neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is notable for its association football, football team, that currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, Primera Divi ...

and

Arsenal de Sarandí Arsenal Fútbol Club (), usually referred as Arsenal de Sarandí , or simply Arsenal, is an Argentine sports club from the Sarandí district of Avellaneda Partido, Greater Buenos Aires. The football team currently plays in Primera Nacional, t ...

, winning two major titles with the latter team including the

2007 Copa Sudamericana The 2007 edition of the Copa Sudamericana was played by 34 teams; 30 teams from the CONMEBOL and 4 teams from the CONCACAF. CONMEBOL organized the tournament and invited three North American clubs which were the best three of the CONCACAF Champio ...

. He retired from football in 2009, at the age of 33.

Coaching career

Díaz began working as a manager in March 2012, after succeeding

Ramón Díaz Ramón Ángel Díaz (; born 29 August 1959) is an Argentine Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player. Díaz notably played for Club Atlético River Plate, River Plate as a Forward (association fo ...

at the helm of Independiente. As an interim, he led the team to a 5–4 away win against

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

in the same month, ending the opposition's 33-match unbeaten run in national competitions; during his tenure at the

Estadio Libertadores de América The Libertadores de América – Ricardo Enrique Bochini Stadium (, ; )Racing Club de Avellaneda Racing Club () is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Avellaneda, Argentina. They compete in the Argentine Primera División, Primera División, the top tier of Argentine football league system, Argentine f ...

in a

local derby A sports rivalry is intense competition between athletic teams or athletes, affecting participants, management, and supporters all to varying degrees. One of the first known sports rivalries occurred in the Roman Empire between the Blues and th ...

, but the club was also

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

to the

Primera B Nacional Primera Nacional (usually called simply Nacional B, (English "National B Division"), and known as Primera B Nacional until the 2019–20 season) is the second division of the Argentine football league system. The competition is made up of 38 team ...

even though he left into the season to be replaced by

Américo Gallego Américo Rubén "El Tolo" Gallego (born 25 April 1955) is an Argentine football coach and former player. As a midfielder, he played 73 times for the Argentina national team during his playing career. Playing career and Information Gallego s ...

. Subsequently, Díaz had abroad stints at

Deportes Iquique Club de Deportes Iquique S.A.D.P. is a Chilean professional football club based in Iquique, currently playing in the Chilean Primera División. Founded in 1978, the club's home stadium is the Estadio Tierra de Campeones, which has a 13,171 capac ...

(Chile) and

Club Deportivo Universidad de San Martín de Porres Club Deportivo Universidad de San Martín de Porres S.A., commonly known as Club Deportivo USMP, is a Peruvian football club based in the city of Lima. The club was founded in 2004 as a Joint-stock company, the first in Peru. In just their first ...

(Peru): he led the former team to the group stage of the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

for the first time ever, and was appointed at the latter on 17 December 2014. Díaz returned to his country and its top level in February 2016, joining Olimpo. In spite of the side finishing in last place they avoided relegation on the coefficient rule, and he left his post on 4 December. On 5 April 2017, Díaz signed for

Quilmes Atlético Club Quilmes Atlético Club () is an Argentine sports club based in the Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Quilmes district of Greater Buenos Aires. Established in 1887 (although the date of foundation is still under dispute), Quilmes is the oldest club of Arg ...

, this time not being able to prevent relegation to division two. In late June of the following year, he was appointed at Santa Tecla F.C. from the

Salvadoran Primera División Salvadorans (), also known as Salvadorians, are citizens of El Salvador, a country in Central America. Most Salvadorans live in El Salvador, although there is also a significant Salvadoran diaspora, particularly Salvadoran Americans, in the Unite ...

Honours

Player

Udinese *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Independiente *

Supercopa Sudamericana The Supercopa Libertadores (English: ''Libertadores Supercup''), also known as the Supercopa Sudamericana, Supercopa Libertadores João Havelange, Supercopa João Havelange or simply Supercopa, was a football club competition contested annually be ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

Arsenal Sarandí *

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Suruga Bank Championship The J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship was an annual intercontinental football match held in Japan, contested by the reigning champions of the J.League Cup and the Copa Sudamericana. The tournament was previously officially called the ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Diaz, Christian 1976 births Living people Copa Sudamericana–winning players Footballers from Florencio Varela Partido Argentine sportspeople of Spanish descent Argentine men's footballers Men's association football defenders Argentine Primera División players Primera Nacional players Club Atlético Independiente footballers Club Atlético Huracán footballers Club Olimpo footballers Arsenal de Sarandí footballers Serie A players Udinese Calcio players La Liga players Segunda División players RCD Mallorca players Levante UD footballers Albacete Balompié players Ciudad de Murcia footballers UD Almería players Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine football managers Club Atlético Independiente managers Deportes Iquique managers Club Deportivo Universidad de San Martín de Porres managers Club Olimpo managers Quilmes Atlético Club managers C.D. Jorge Wilstermann managers Royal Pari F.C. managers The Strongest managers Cienciano managers Club Atlético Tembetary managers Argentine Primera División managers Chilean Primera División managers Peruvian Primera División managers Bolivian Primera División managers Argentine expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Chile Expatriate football managers in Peru Expatriate football managers in El Salvador Expatriate football managers in Bolivia Expatriate football managers in Paraguay Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Peru Argentine expatriate sportspeople in El Salvador Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Bolivia Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Paraguay