Diego Costa Bastos Walsh (born 8 December 1979) is a Brazilian

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 ...

er who last played for

TOT S.C. TOT Sport Club () is a Thai defunct football club based in Lak Si district in northern Bangkok which represents the national telecommunications company, TOT Public Company Limited. TOT originally stands for the Telephone Organization of Thailand ...

in the

Thai Premier League The Thai League (, pronounced as ') or Thai League 1 (, pronounced as '), often referred to as T1, is the highest level of the Thai football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Thai L ...

Career

Youth and College

While growing up in Brazil, Diego played in the youth system of Santos FC, before moving to

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, Florida at the age of 14. He played club soccer for Miami Strike Force, and was a major part of a talented team which won 5 consecutive state championships, 2 regional championships, and finished second in the National Championship. Diego turned down numerous other university scholarships to play four years of

college soccer College soccer, called college football in some countries, is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. While it is most widespread in the United States, it is also prominent in Japan, South Kore ...

for

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

, from 1999 to 2002, on a full scholarship. In both his junior and senior years, Diego was a NSCAA first team All-American. He is also currently SMU's all-time leader in assists, with 39, and ranks fifth in goals, also with 39. He was later named in the NSCAA "Team of the Decade," in 2010.

Professional

Upon graduating, Diego was drafted seventh overall in the

2003 MLS SuperDraft The 2003 MLS Superdraft was held January 17, 2003 in Kansas City, Missouri. It was the fifth annual SuperDraft held by Major League Soccer. Player selection ;Key Round One Round one trades Round Two Round two trades R ...

by the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew are an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team began play in 1996 as one of the 10 cha ...

. Walsh did not garner much time with the Crew, although playing extremely well when he was given the opportunity earning Columbus Crew Goal of the Year for 2003. He was traded at the end of the season to the

Kansas City Wizards Sporting Kansas City is an American professional soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The administrative offices are located in downtown K ...

. Although Diego started the season with a starting role in the Wizards' offense because of an injury to

Preki Predrag Radosavljević ( sr-Cyrl, Предраг Радосављевић; born June 24, 1963), better known by the nickname Preki (), is a former soccer player and coach. He is currently an assistant coach with Seattle Sounders FC in Major Le ...

, Diego did not fit into the Kansas City style of play. He was released by

during the 2005 season. After a brief stint with

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake (RSL) is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. Fou ...

in the 2006 pre-season, he was released again, and played for

Miami FC Miami FC is an American professional association football, soccer team based in Miami, Florida that competes in the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. The club began play in the North American Soccer League (201 ...

along with Brazilian superstar Romario where the pair helped the team make it to the

USL USL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Underground Sound of Lisbon, a Portuguese dance music project * Urban Strawberry Lunch, a band from Liverpool Companies * United Spirits Limited, India * Former United States Lines shipping company C ...

playoffs in its first year in the league. Diego joined

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional men's soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently since its formation, u ...

in the Australian A-League during the 2006/2007 season after impressive displays during two

friendlies in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, which were organised by former Adelaide United chairman Mel Patzwald who facilitated both the Romario transfer as well as the sister relationship between both clubs and was instrumental in the Adelaide United Brazilian connection. which also netted United former

World Player of the Year The FIFA Ballon d'Or ("Golden Ball") was an annual association football award presented to the world's best men's player from 2010 to 2015. Awarded jointly by FIFA and '' France Football'', the prize was a merger of the FIFA World Player of the ...

Romario. Diego was recommended to Adelaide by Romario himself, who regarded him highly as a player. He debuted impressively against

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

on 14 January 2007, with an assist to

Fernando Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, and former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa and Asia (like the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka). It is e ...

for an 88th-minute winner. During his second season with

, he established himself as an excellent defensive and central midfielder, not only for Adelaide but in the whole

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

, and was regarded by his teammates as the outstanding player of the 2008 Asian Champions League campaign. He was the team's top goal scorer with 4 goals helping Adelaide United reach the 2008 Asian Champions League final for the first time. Adelaide United ended up losing the final to Gamba Osaka of Japan. In a shock decision for Adelaide fans, Diego was released by the club on 20 January 2009. Adelaide coach

Aurelio Vidmar Aurelio Vidmar ( ; born 3 February 1967) is an Australian association football manager and former player, currently manager of Melbourne City. He is a former captain of the Australia national team and former coach of the Australia U23 nati ...

cited Diego's 19 starts out of a possible 41 in two seasons, as a key factor in the decision. "He missed 50 per cent of the games due to injury – hamstrings, quads and back," said Vidmar. He was signed up by the

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League Men, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the 2007–08 ...

, on a two-year contract and became a firm favorite with the Wellington Phoenix supporter's group Yellow Fever. On 20 May 2011 it was announced that he had signed a temporary contract with

Charleston Battery The Charleston Battery are an American professional association football, soccer club based in Charleston, South Carolina, and member of the USL Championship. Founded in 1993, the Battery are the oldest continuously operating professional socc ...

. On 6 July 2011 it was announced in the Thai media that Diego had taken up a contract with Thai Premier League team

He is currently an assistant coach at

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

D1 program

Grand Canyon University Grand Canyon University (GCU) is a Private university, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit Christian university in Phoenix, Arizona. The university offers degrees in over 200 areas of study and is administrativel ...

A-League career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Diego 1979 births Living people Footballers from Santos, São Paulo Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Brazilian people of American descent Columbus Crew players Charleston Battery players Sporting Kansas City players Real Salt Lake players Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Wellington Phoenix FC players Adelaide United FC players Major League Soccer players A-League Men players Fort Lauderdale Strikers (2006–2016) players Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States SMU Mustangs men's soccer players Expatriate men's association footballers in New Zealand USL First Division players USL Championship players Columbus Crew draft picks Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand Men's association football midfielders All-American college men's soccer players