In our family, thereâ€s been zero doubt about Diego Lunaâ€s USMNT identity | USA

Like many California-raised Mexican Americans, Iâ€ve lost count of the times my family has gathered to watch a match between Mexico and the United States. Whether a friendly or World Cup qualifier, the “Dos A Cero†rivalry attracts the largest crowds to my tiaâ€s watch parties, about an hour south of San Francisco.

Each clash feels like the fractured embodiment of being Mexican American: the cheering and moaning of Mexican immigrant parents and their Americanized children alike, rife with intergenerational discord. The stakes are always high, especially since most of my relatives grew up with the sport – and arenâ€t shy about sharing their tactical opinions midgame. Many of them played pro, semi-pro, collegiately and, of course, at the neighborhood parks.

The biggest name at our gatherings? US menâ€s national team rising star Diego Luna.

Diego was one of the few members of our family who cheered for the US over Mexico. Thatâ€s perhaps understandable: he is an American Gen Z-er who, understandably, grew up further removed from the migratory realities of the elder generations.

Now, the little kid who used to run around my tiaâ€s house has transformed into a key member of the US team – a fan favorite, a fiery sparkplug and a regular amid a sometimes-agonizing rebuild under Mauricio Pochettino. Diego has appeared in a team-high 13 of the 14 US games in 2025, and heâ€s in the squad again for the teamâ€s upcoming friendlies against Ecuador and Australia.

The 22-year-oldâ€s rapid ascendance (with a broken nose incurred in a match against Costa Rica, at that) may have caught soccer pundits off guard, but there has never been any doubt which side Diego represents – blood-stained jersey and all.

Diego Luna featured prominently for the US U-20 national team. Photograph: ISI Photos/Getty Images

His journey in soccer began long before he could dribble a ball.

Beto Luna – Diegoâ€s dad, who married into our family – first had his own unlikely ascendance into professional soccer when he was scouted to play for the San Diego Sockers indoor team in 1985, despite having no pro experience as a student at Foothill college. Beto had only just arrived in the Bay Area and was unable to stay with the Sockers full time, but he stuck around long enough to finish off an assist from now-Seattle Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer, parlaying that brief stint into a run with the Milwaukee Wave and the San Jose Earthquakes (during their existence in one of the many predecessor leagues to MLS).

An intrepid opportunist, the elder Luna didnâ€t come to this country to become a futbolero. But by the grace of the soccer gods, he became one, and he is now a respected coach in the Bay Area.

“The passion that we all have for the sport comes from my dad,†says Armando Luna, Diegoâ€s eldest brother – a player himself, until a back injury forced him into coaching. “The way he threw himself into the sport, starting from a later age and working hard to develop his drive and love for soccer in a new country, inspired us.â€

Armando grew up especially close to his dad, but later became a role model and mentor for the much younger Diego.

The youngest Lunaâ€s trajectory has been anything but conventional, circumventing the NCAA and MLS systems in favor of the Barcelona residency academy in Arizona, followed by his successful stint in the second-tier USL with El Paso Locomotive FC. It all started within the family, though. With three older siblings and a father who all played and coached, Diego was perpetually bouncing from field to field as both a player and observer since infancy.

“He was coached by us all his whole life,†Armando says. “If he had a training session at 5.30pm, he would get dropped off at three in the afternoon because the rest of us had to set up for other practices and our own games. Since he was always early, he would just practice and hang around the older players and work on his skills. Then, heâ€d have to stay later until our other games finished in the night. So he was on the field 24/7. That was the reality every single day. You would think we were hard on him, but that wasnâ€t really the case. He loved being around the game.â€

This conception that you only develop the kind of skills he has as a Latino is by playing on the streets, thatâ€s bullshit. It was all by design.

Armando Luna, Diegoâ€s brother

Diego joined the Palo Alto Soccer Club at age five, a program where his father and older brother coached and directed for years to develop a regional powerhouse. At the time, Diego was playing with much older kids, nearly twice his age. Being physically overmatched forced Diego to develop a certain field awareness and technical mastery to compete.

“They talk about [Diego] like heâ€s a street baller. But he never played on the streets. This conception that you only develop the kind of skills he has as a Latino is by playing on the streets, thatâ€s bullshit,†says Armando. “It was all by design. From training. From encouraging his creativity on the field, from discipline. He had to learn the mental aspect of the game quickly. We never criticized him for trying new things. That translates to his game now.â€

Eventually, the family decided that Diego had outgrown the parochial circuit, so he joined the San Jose Earthquakes academy in 2015 at age 13. The inconvenience of constant rush hour travel and scheduling that didnâ€t coincide with Lunaâ€s schooling presented challenges for a working family that was already stretched thin with soccer commitments all over the Bay Area. In 2018, they looked elsewhere. Luna himself decided on moving to Arizona to play at the Barcelona academy, where he trained and lived for three years. That propelled him towards his first professional singing with El Paso in 2021.

El Paso couldnâ€t have been a more appropriate home for Diego – a Mexican-American borderland city that is culturally, and sociologically, caught between neighboring worlds in Mexico and the US.

In retelling his brotherâ€s soccer quest, Armando recites a quote to me from the 1997 film Selena: “Being a Mexican American is tough … we gotta prove to the Mexicans how Mexican we are, and we gotta prove to the Americans how American we are. We gotta be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans. Itâ€s exhausting.â€

In the biopic, Jennifer Lopez plays the famous Tejana pop star from a border town who notoriously learned how to sing in Spanish as a Mexican American to validate her dual identity. Itâ€s a familiar story for anyone who has known both sides of the border: a road which inevitably forks in separate directions the older one becomes. Go left for the US or go right for Mexico. And be damned regardless.

Luna has become a mainstay with the US under Mauricio Pochettino. Photograph: Ashley Landis/AP

Like many children of immigrants, Diego never had to confront the challenges of his parents†crossing and hasnâ€t known life on the other side of the border. He grew up with soccer in a relatively comfortable environment in California. Why would someone in his position give that up for something they have no connection to?

“We never heard anything from the Mexican federation. No communication. No interest. No real anything,†Armando says. “Even for US Soccer, it wasnâ€t like there was a ton of interest from their side, either.â€

But when that US offer arrived, accepting it was easy, even if the reaction wasnâ€t. Fans in Mexico grew increasingly vocal against Luna and his choice to represent the US, which invoked betrayal in their eyes. Other Mexican-American prospects like Julián Araujo (Bournemouth) and Daâ€Vian Kimbrough (Sacramento Republic) have gained praise for their decision to represent El Tri on the international stage, yet online trolls have lambasted Diego for his supposed inability to speak Spanish (he can but itâ€s his second language, and he prefers to answer most media questions in English).

Still, Armando tells me how fans from Costa Rica, Guatemala and especially Mexico have enthusiastically approached Diego after his international caps asking for photos and autographs. A US citizen, he remains grateful to represent his nation, and any antagonism that has come as a result of his choice has only helped to forge Diegoâ€s fortitude.

“When he was young, when the Mexican team would win, [Diego] would have a fit,†Armando recalls. “He always wanted the US team to win. He grew up here. He doesnâ€t know anything else.â€

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