Diego Armando Valentin Contento (born 1 May 1990) is a German former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

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 ...

, mainly for

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

and

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

in the French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

Personal life

Contento's family is from the outskirts of

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

(his father from

Casalnuovo di Napoli Casalnuovo di Napoli (; ) is an Italian (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italy, Italian region of Campania, located about northeast of Naples. The municipality of Casalnuovo di Napoli contains the ''frazione, frazioni'' ...

and his mother from

Caivano Caivano is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 14 km northeast of Naples. The municipality contains the ''frazioni'' Casolla Valenzano and Pascarola. Pascarola ...

), Italy, and he was named after former

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

star

Diego Armando Maradona Diego Armando Maradona Franco (30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the ...

. His older brothers Vincenzo and Domenico were previously in Bayern's youth team.

Club career

upContento in 2010 Contento played for

's first-team in pre-season friendlies in 2009, appearing against

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

champion Red Bull Salzburg as a second-half substitute for

Edson Braafheid Edson René Braafheid (born 8 April 1983) is a Dutch former professional footballer who currently works as a player representative at the Tevreden Group. Braafheid started his career as a defender with Eredivisie side Utrecht in 2003, before ...

, and was named on the substitutes' bench for a

match against

Mainz 05 1. Fußball- und Sport-Verein Mainz 05 e. V., usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05 or simply Mainz 05 (), is a German professional sports club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Mainz 05 play in the Bundesliga, the top tie ...

in August 2009. He was called up to Bayern Munich's squad for the

2009–10 UEFA Champions League The 2009–10 UEFA Champions League was the 55th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 18th under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was played on 22 May 2010 at the Santiago Bernabéu St ...

, where he was assigned the number 26. In January 2010, it was announced that Contento would train with the first-team for the rest of the 2009–10 season, along with reserve team-mates

David Alaba David Alaba (; born 24 June 1992) is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for La Liga club Real Madrid and captains the Austria national team. He was previously primarily a left-back, and was considered one of the best ...

and

Mehmet Ekici Mehmet Ekici (; born 25 March 1990) is a professional footballer who most recently played as a central midfielder for Fenerbahçe. He previously played for Werder Bremen, 1. FC Nürnberg, Bayern Munich, and Trabzonspor. Born in Germany, Ekici ...

. Contento signed his first professional contract with Bayern Munich on 13 January 2010. The trio were named on the first-team substitutes' bench for the first time on 10 February 2010, for a

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

game against Greuther Fürth, and Contento came on in the 59th minute, replacing

Anatoliy Tymoshchuk Anatoliy Oleksandrovych Tymoshchuk ( , ; born 30 March 1979) is a Ukrainian association football, football coach and former midfielder. Since 2017, he has served as an assistant coach of the Russian Premier League club FC Zenit Saint Petersburg ...

. Contento made his

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

debut a week later, coming on as a half time substitute for

Daniel Van Buyten Daniel Van Buyten (; born 7 February 1978) is a Belgian former Association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football)#Centre-back, centre back. Nicknamed "Big Dan", Van Buyten was known for his uncompromising style of p ...

in a game against

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

, and the following weekend he made his league debut in the Bavarian Derby against 1. FC Nürnberg, starting in place of the injured Van Buyten. He was in the starting XI for the next two games against

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

and

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., better known as simply 1. FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English language, English, is a German professional association football, football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 ...

, but was injured in the latter, and replaced by fellow youth team graduate

. On 21 April 2010 he was named in the starting line-up for Bayern's

semi-final first leg against

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. On 27 May 2010, Contento signed a contract extension keeping him at the

Allianz Arena Allianz Arena (; known as Munich Football Arena for UEFA competitions) is a Association football, football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, with a 70,000 seating capacity for international matches and 75,000 for domestic matches. Widely kno ...

until 2013. Contento started in the 2010 German Super Cup and played the full 90 minutes. Bayern defeated

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...

2–0. Contento began the 2010–11 season as a starter for Bayern. After five games, he suffered an injury and was sidelined for three weeks. He was unable to reclaim his starting spot until the very end of the season. He was first choice to Andries Jonker, the caretaker manager of Bayern Munich until the end of the 2010–11 league season. On 1 July 2011,

Jupp Heynckes Josef "Jupp" Heynckes (; born 9 May 1945) is a German retired professional footballer and manager. For the majority of his playing career he was as a striker for Borussia Mönchengladbach in its golden era of the 1960s and '70s, when they won m ...

was named head coach of Bayern Munich. At the beginning of the new Bundesliga season, Heynckes brought in

Rafinha Rafinha is the diminutive form of the given name Rafael. It can refer to: Brazilian footballers * Rafinha (footballer, born 1982), Rafael Scapini de Almeida, midfielder and defender * Rafinha (footballer, born 1983), Rafael da Silva Francisco, mi ...

for the right back position. Team captain

Philipp Lahm Philipp Lahm (; born 11 November 1983) is a German former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Full back (association football), full-back. Widely regarded as one of the greatest full-backs of all time, Lahm was the longt ...

changed back to his favoured left side and Contento was mostly relegated to the bench. However, he was in the starting XI in the

2012 UEFA Champions League Final The 2012 UEFA Champions League final was an association football match which took place on Saturday, 19 May 2012 between Bayern Munich of Germany and Chelsea of England at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. The match was to decide the winner ...

against Chelsea. On 12 August 2014, Contento signed four-year deal with

side,

. He had been at Bayern for 19 years. On 22 May 2018, Contento inked a two-year deal with

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, that competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fo ...

returning him to the Bundesliga after a four-year spell in France. Contento suffered a cruciate ligament tear in September 2018. During his time with Düsseldorf, Contento only managed to appear in one cup game. On 1 July 2020, Contento signed with 2. Bundesliga side

SV Sandhausen Sportverein Sandhausen 1916 e.V., commonly known as simply SV Sandhausen or Sandhausen, is a Football in Germany, German association football club that plays in Sandhausen, immediately to the south of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg. It is Ger ...

. Contento announced his retirement from playing in March 2023.

International career

Contento represented Germany at under-17 and under-20 level. In 2010, he expressed his desire to represent

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

rather than

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

at senior level. Contento was called up to the Germany under-21 in September 2010, though he could not make his debut due to an irritation on a toe.

Career statistics

Honours

Bayern Munich *

: 2009–10,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2013–14 *

: 2009–10,

, 2013–14 *

DFB-Supercup The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup or ''German Super Cup'' is a one-off football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal. The competition is run by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (English: German Footbal ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

; runner-up: 2009–10, 2011–12 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Contento, Diego 1990 births Living people People of Campanian descent Footballers from Munich German men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks FC Bayern Munich II players FC Bayern Munich footballers FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Fortuna Düsseldorf players SV Sandhausen players Bundesliga players Ligue 1 players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players 2. Bundesliga players German expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France German sportspeople of Italian descent Germany men's youth international footballers UEFA Champions League–winning players 21st-century German sportsmen