Diego Roberto Godin Leal is a famous Uruguayan footballer. Plays in the position of a central defender. Plays for the Italian football club "Internationale", as well as for the national team of Uruguay.
Biography
The future footballer was born in February 1986 on the sixteenth in the small Uruguayan town of Rosario. From an early age, the boy had a great love for football. He played sports and dreamed of becoming a real football player someday. Diego's family was not rich, and this was one of the main obstacles to his dream. Nevertheless, the family found funds to send little Diego to the Estudiantes de Rosario football academy. For this, the athlete is still grateful to his mother and maintains the most tender relationship with his parents.
Professional career
Godin made a very good showing at his first club and at the age of sixteen moved to the academy of the more respectable club Defensor Sporting. The guy spent only a year in the new team. In 2003 he was admitted to the Cerro academy, one of the most titled and popular clubs in the country.
In the same year, Godin signed his first professional agreement with the club. In Cerro, the still inexperienced Diego has actually grown into a real base player. In three seasons with the team, he moved from rotation to the starting lineup and played more than sixty matches in which he scored six goals.
Such high-quality and rapid growth did not go unnoticed by the country's top clubs, and in 2006, according to Godin, an advantageous offer was made. In 2006, Diego's new club was Nacional. The promising defender played for the team from Montevideo for only one year. Then he decided that it was time to conquer European football. The player's choice fell on Spain, a fairly popular championship, but not as harsh and difficult as in England.
The giants of Spanish football, Real Madrid and Barcelona did not pay any attention to the young player, and the guy had no choice but to accept any offer from the Spanish championship. In the summer of 2007, Godin received an offer from Villarreal and gladly accepted it. Already in August, he entered the Spanish lawns for the first time with Villarreal. In October, against the strong middle peasant of the major league Osasuna, Godin scored a goal, but despite his spectacular goal, Villarreal was still defeated with a score of 2-3.
The first season in the team was extremely successful for Diego, in a short time he managed to demonstrate his skills to the club's management and take a place in the starting lineup. In total, he played twenty-four matches in his debut season. In addition, Villarreal have taken the highest place in their history based on the results of the championship. The second line for a rather mediocre team was a huge achievement.
Diego began the next season as a full-fledged player in the starting lineup, his brilliant defensive performance was in fact an important component of the success of the previous season. Among other things, Villarreal also came second in terms of goals conceded.
In total, Godin spent three years in the camp of the “yellow submarines”, during which he appeared on the field 116 times and even scored four goals.
In the summer of 2010, a serious struggle unfolded for Diego Godin, several eminent clubs were going to take possession of a talented defender at once. But the most successful was Atletico Madrid. In August of the same year, an agreement was reached for three years.
The defender made his debut in the UEFA Super Cup against the Italian club Internazionale. The game ended with a convincing victory for Atlético. The UEFA Super Cup is the second trophy for the Uruguayan defender. In total, Godin played thirty meetings this season, in which he scored four goals.
In the 12-13 season, Godin replenished his trophy box with two significant trophies at once, he won the Spanish Cup with Atlético, as well as the second UEFA Super Cup in his career. In 2013, at the end of the season, Godin extended his contract with the Madrid club for another five years. In total, the Uruguayan spent nine fruitful years in the “mattress” team, during which he appeared on the field 389 times and scored twenty-seven goals, which is very good for a central defender.
In May 2019, on the eve of the expiration of another contract with Atlético, the Uruguayan announced that he was planning to leave the club soon. Before the start of the 19-20 season, he signed an agreement with the Italian club Internazionale, in which he plays today.
Uruguay national team career
Godin first appeared in national colors for the U20 team at the 2005 Continental Championships. Even then, he was a key figure in the defense of the team and played all nine meetings in the tournament. In the same year, the talented player was noticed by the leadership of the main national team of the country, and in October 2005 he made his debut for the senior Uruguayan team in a friendly match with the Mexican national team.
In 2010, he was called up to the national team for the World Cup, which was held in South Africa. His team made it to the semi-final stage, and Godin himself played five matches. In 2011, Diego added the first international trophy to the asset, the Uruguayan national team won the American Championship. To date, this is the only award that Godin has received in the national team.
Diego also took part in the matches of the 2014 and 2018 World Cup. In the latter, he was declared a member of the symbolic team of the tournament.
Personal life
Diego Godin is married to Sofia, the daughter of the famous Uruguayan football player of the last century, Jose Oscar Herrera. In his free time, the athlete is engaged in a variety of creativity and loves to spend time with his wife and dogs, of which the spouses have four.
