A Tribute to ‘El Maestro’ — Sport Oregon Voices
Image Credit: Portland Timbers
As is the way of sports, Major League Soccer supporters and those that follow the game love a good ranking. Who’s the best at that, who has the most this, where does so-and-so rank all-time?
Among those bandied-about topics, the league’s Designated Player segment certainly is a popular category for discussion. Introduced in 2007 to effectively pave the way for the league’s ability to sign international icon David Beckham, for starters, the DP rule was established to afford teams the ability to sign up to three players above and beyond their salary cap restrictions, thus infusing more top-level talent into the league and making MLS more competitive and relevant in international circles. These are players that stand out.
Some 15 years after the rule’s implementation, it would be hard to argue that Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri doesn’t deserve to be in the conversation for the top spot on any list of best DPs in MLS history.
It’s a timely topic, as we learned in the last week that Valeri – after nine seasons with the Timbers – has been transferred to his boyhood club in Argentina, Club Atlético Lanús. In some ways, it’s a shock to the system. After all, Valeri, who gained the moniker “El Maestro” for his creative exploits on the pitch, was synonymous with the Timbers. He won trophies for this club. He was an impeccable community ambassador for this club. To imagine our Timbers without Valeri, at a base level, seems impossible. But on the other hand, no player stays active with any one team forever, and there is a sense of satisfaction and relief that he’s going back to the club that sprung his professional career, in his home country.
Make no mistake, Portland will always be home to Valeri, too. And that didn’t happen by accident, because what cements him as one of – if not the – greatest DPs in league history is the connection he built with his adopted hometown of Portland. No offense to any of the other couple hundred or so DPs in league history, but you’d be hard-pressed to find another that embraced his community as much as Valeri has.
Ask anyone in the Timbers orbit and they’ll tell you – when you needed someone to participate in any number of activities off the field, Valeri was there…every time. He’d volunteer in a heartbeat for just about anything – that is, unless it was his idea in the first place. It wasn’t just surface interest, either. Valeri wasn’t into making “appearances” for the sake of ticking a box. He was genuinely interested in the city, the people, their businesses and organizations, and the fans that supported his passion and his club. He never seemed much for sitting around, and always seemed interested in being a part of the city. It would be nothing to see Valeri and his family at a Portland Thorns FC game at Providence Park, hanging around a local indoor soccer facility, or just out and about sampling some of the wonders of the city. He was humble and focused in anything he tried. He’d sheepishly recoil when asked to play something on his familiar acoustic guitar that he’d often take along on longer road trips. But as was his way, there was a focused skill and beauty to his playing, even if he was bashful about it.
Building a Winning Tradition
Valeri came to the Timbers just prior to the 2013 season, and his signing came at a pivotal time for the club. Consider that it was just coming off a disappointing 2012 season that saw a coach firing and one of the league’s worst records. It was a decided step back in the hopeful progression of an expansion team that came within a game or so of making the playoffs during its inaugural MLS campaign of 2011.
He came to the club as a curiosity. This wasn’t David Beckham or Thierry Henry signing with the Timbers, and true to Valeri’s and the team’s personality, it was a somewhat low-key, yet intriguing addition for the 2013 campaign. For 2013, Timbers general manager Gavin Wilkinson set out on the task to reinvent the team in many ways, signing a number of impactful players that would surround Valeri and, ultimately, help make it a champion. Valeri’s signing prompted a cautious air of optimism. By a quick scan of the Internet, you could tell he had the pedigree for greatness, but there were far too many cautionary tales of promising international signings that quickly flamed out in MLS.
One of the many impressive things about Valeri was the immediate impact he made. It was the first game of the 2013 season, and there was a bit of an unsettled air about Providence Park (then JELD-WEN Field) that day. People were excited about this new-look team, but seemingly wary of having their hopes dashed. This was also Year 3 for the expansion club, and frankly it was time to start producing. After all, this wasn’t the 1970s model of expansion, where a rag-tag NFL startup like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gets a free pass for a decade of double-digit losses each year. These days, expansion teams across sports are pretty much afforded the resources and wherewithal to at least be competitive out of the gates, and start contending for postseason success a couple years in. Look no further than the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, who made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first year.
The Timbers quickly dug themselves a 1-0 hole to the New York Red Bulls by conceding a goal in the ninth minute. Mind you, a year prior, a 1-0 deficit pretty much meant game over for Portland. But this wasn’t your 2012 Timbers, and Diego Valeri was quick to put an exclamation on that statement, scoring one of his most memorable goals with the club a few minutes later, to even the score, and give the legions of Timbers fans a preview of what they could expect moving forward. The goal had flair, skill and purpose, and it was vintage Valeri, before we even knew what that meant. Portland eventually fell behind 3-1 by half. But again, that just served as motivation for this newly inspired team, which would eventually level the game with just moments remaining and settle for one of those 3-3 draws that felt like win.
The Timbers went on to finish atop the Western Conference that season for the first time, and advanced as far as the Conference semifinals in the playoffs, just one game away from MLS Cup. Suddenly, the Timbers were contenders, a team that had to be reckoned with. And it’s safe to say that Valeri symbolized that newfound status and was the straw the stirred the drink, so to speak.
Since that season, Valeri and the Timbers went on to make the playoffs seven of the next nine seasons, winning MLS Cup in 2015 and appearing in two more as part of three Western Conference championships. They hoisted another trophy by winning the MLS Is Back tournament in 2020. They earned the right to compete in Concacaf Champions League three times, advancing all the way to the quarterfinals this past season.
By the Numbers
In terms of personal accolades, it’s nearly impossible to fully evaluate Valeri’s impact and scour every record that he owns. He leaves Portland as the club’s all-time leader in regular-season goals scored (86), and assists (91), while ranking second only behind longtime teammate Diego Chara in games played (262) and starts (230). Across all competitions, he finished his playing career with the Timbers with 100 goals and 104 assists across 306 total appearances.
He made a big splash in 2013 by being named the MLS Newcomer of the Year that season, and just four years later was named the Landon Donovan MLS MVP in 2017. In 2015, he again scored one of the most memorable goals in club history, when he hustled his way to an incredible tally just 27 seconds into the game by forcing a mistake by the Columbus Crew goalkeeper in Portland’s 2-1 win in that season’s championship game.
In 2020, he became just the third player in league history to record 80 goals and 80 assists in their career. He was one of just four players in MLS history to record seven or more assists in eight consecutive seasons. And in 2020, Valeri was named to MLS’ “The 25 Greatest,” which honored the 25 brightest stars in league history. He was a five-time MLS All-Star (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018) and delivered the game-winning assist against FC Bayern Munich at Providence Park in the 2014 All-Star Game. He was named the Timbers Player of the Year in 2014 and 2017, and was the Supporters Player of the Year in 2014, 2016 and 2017. Not surprisingly, he earned the team’s Golden Boot in five different seasons by leading the Timbers in goals in 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2020.
A Sense of Duty
As great as the stats are, though, they don’t sum up Valeri’s greatness. You know you’re a legend-status player when even supporters of your biggest rival, in this case Seattle Sounders FC, muster up the energy to acknowledge you as a class act, albeit one that they likely don’t mind seeing move along. Yes, even that happened over the last week.
When you boil it all down, though, one thing about Valeri that stands out is his generosity and undeniable sense of duty. Certainly he felt a sense of duty to the team, as its primary offense weapon and string-puller for all those years. And he always had a sense of duty to his family, with his daughter, Connie, practically growing up right in front of us all, as part of the extended Timbers and Thorns FC family. But that sense of duty extended to the way in which he treated members of the media, officials, members of the soccer staff, members of the Timbers front office, heck anyone he ran across. He represented the Timbers in a first-class manner wherever he went, and you can tell it was important to him to be kind and respectful to everyone.
After the Timbers defeated Columbus to win their first MLS Cup in 2015, Valeri was named MLS Cup MVP for his in-game heroics. It’s kind of a catch 22, though, as when you win this award, you’re immediately hauled off by handlers after the final whistle, whisked away to conduct any number of interviews with media rights-holders and such on the field. Objectively, Valeri wasn’t crazy about this in the moment, as all he wanted to do was immediately share in the jubilation of this historic feat with his teammates, coaches, family and supporters at the other end of the field. But true to form, Valeri gracefully and respectfully answered every question posed to him by the throng of media that evening, and, despite not being known as the speediest player around, sprinted as fast as he probably ever has to join in the celebration the second he was done. Because this was just another time that Valeri was respectful of his obligations to the sport and of his sense of duty as a member of the Portland Timbers.
We now say goodbye to the legend that is Diego Valeri, at least for now. There are plans for a testimonial game in Portland between the Timbers and Lanús, with Valeri suiting up to play one half for each team. We look forward to his return as a Timbers ambassador after his retirement, too.
For now, as he departs the club, we thank El Maestro for his commitment to the club and the city, for his generosity and humility, for all the great memories he provided and for his role in molding the Timbers into a championship team, on and off the pitch. There have been bigger names to dot a roster in MLS, but none that made as big of a well-rounded impact. In soccer parlance, Diego Valeri put in one hell of a shift with this club.