Yendry Díaz Pérez (born 5 June 1987) is a

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

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 ...

Career

Professional

After several unsuccessful trials with various

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

clubs, Diaz signed with the

Real Maryland Monarchs Real Maryland F.C., commonly known as the Real Maryland Monarchs, was an American soccer team based in Rockville, Maryland, United States. Founded in 2007, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the Americ ...

in the

USL Second Division The USL Second Division (commonly referred to as USL-2) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States, operated by United Soccer Leagues (USL). It was at the third tier of soccer in the United States, behind Major League Soccer ...

on April 15, 2009. Diaz signed with the new

USSF Division 2 The USSF Division 2 Professional League (D2 Pro League) was a temporary professional soccer league created by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) for the 2010 season. The twelve-team league was formed as a compromise between the feuding U ...

team

FC Tampa Bay The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tier ...

in January 2010. The club joined the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

in 2011. After spending the 2011 season with FC Tampa Bay, the club announced on October 4, 2011, that it would not re-sign Diaz for the 2012 season.

International

Diaz has numerous caps for Cuba national U-23 football team and made his senior international debut for

in a February 2008

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

. He earned his second and final cap two days later against the same opposition.

Personal life

Díaz was born to Julio Diaz and Dinora Perez and has a younger sister, Mariaelena Diaz. Yendry Diaz has a stepbrother named Lucas Lima. Diaz

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

to the United States from

just after his team's Olympic qualifying game against the United States on March 11, 2008, along with several teammates, including Loanny Cartaya.Yendry Diaz's match of freedom
/ref> Diaz apparently slipped out of his hotel in the middle of the night and traveled by car to

West Palm Beach West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...

References

External links

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Real Maryland Monarchs bio2 Months After Flight, No Asylum, No Regret
Article in Tampa Bay Online 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Matanzas Defecting Cuban footballers Men's association football defenders Cuban men's footballers Cuba men's international footballers FC Matanzas players Real Maryland F.C. players Tampa Bay Rowdies players USL Second Division players USSF Division 2 Professional League players Cuban expatriate men's footballers Cuban expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Cuba men's under-20 international footballers {{Cuba-footy-bio-stub