The stories of Diego Chará
What’s your favorite Diego Chará Story? These are the Portland Timbers' answers.
BEAVERTON — This is a new one for Diego Chará.
Chará, the longest-serving member of the Portland Timbers and of MLS, isn’t new to a little bit of promotion. He’s been honored plenty before, but the last week has seen his life-sized bobblehead tour the city ahead of Saturday’s Chará Bobblehead Night.
That was different, he said.
“It’s going to be a pretty cool celebration, you know?” Chará said. “It’s going to be something nice.”
Since Chará has spoken more than enough over the last two weeks — including tagging along with his likeness to the Portland International Airport — we decided to give him a break and let others speak for him.
What’s your favorite Diego Chará Story? These are their answers:
Eric Miller, teammate: “My favorite Diego story is we were in Colorado in a rain delay. I kept walking around because I didn’t want to get too tight. First, it was 30 minutes. Then it was 45 minutes. Then it was an hour and a half. At one point, Diego looked at me and he said, ‘Milsy, what are you doing? Why are you moving around so much?’ And I’m like, ‘Diego, I’m like a shark. If I stop moving I’m going to die.’ And now sometimes he’ll just call me the shark. So that one he still laughs about, which makes me happy because, as we all know, when you see his smile, it’s like the most infectious, 1000-watt smile.”
Jake Zivin, broadcaster: “First, I’m sorry for calling him Chara for so long. That still gets me. He deserves to be Chará and should have been for 15 years. So I got married in 2018 and went on my honeymoon immediately and I missed three broadcasts. I come back for my first training and Diego comes up to me and he goes, ‘Hey, congratulations on getting married!’ He was the only player who did that. I didn’t even know how he knew that. I didn’t really publicize it or anything. And he was the only player who just noticed, recognized and asked about it. I don’t know how he found out, maybe he watched the broadcast and they probably said something about it. So it was just like, man, what a good person. What a good guy. That’s just my tiny little just me and him interaction, but that’s Diego Chará. He is the best guy. So I’ll always remember that about Diego and appreciate it.”
James Pantemis, goalkeeper: “I’m pretty close with him, considering our lockers are right next to each other in the dressing room. There’s always talk, whether it’s positive talk or funny talk. I bug him a lot. I don’t know if he’s had many teammates that bug him like I do. Last season in Minnesota, we get there on Thursday, but I think we had a midweek game before and Diego sat out. I think that was the game before he hit the record for most games in club history. I said to him, ‘You know, with this mentality, you’re not going to get the 500. It’s just amateur hour, right?’ Just little things to bug him. I think that’s kind of a little relationship that we’ve grown over the last year and a half. I just like to keep him on his toes. ‘You want 500? You want to get to six? You got to take it seriously. I understand you think 400 matches is cool, but five and six is what’s serious.’”
Sawyer Jura, homegrown Timber: “I broke my foot in the offseason and I had the exact same injury that he had in 2023. He hurt it when they were in the playoffs and had the exact same surgery, same doctor, same everything. He immediately brought me in and really told me like, how it’s going to feel, what I’m going to be doing and what tips and tricks he learned. That made a huge difference because it was my first major injury and he immediately stepped in with no hesitation when he heard about it. That was pretty special. I grew up watching him, so yeah, now I’m his teammate and stuff. That was just amazing.”
Zac McGraw, teammate: “I mean, he’s just so consistent every day. You know what you’re going to get from him every single day. He’s a man of few words, but he just shows his leadership through his play and just how he has that confidence in himself.”
Phil Neville, manager: “There’s been a lot of really nice moments, I think probably the best moments are those away from the camera, the moments where you see the true test of a person, of a character, of a legend within the club. I think I noticed in the first month how the whole club worships him. From top to bottom, the whole club worships and thinks so highly of him. The first time I broached maybe leaving him out of the team, or resting him, I remember the whole room just went silent. There is definitely that aura about him. When I had my first conversation about his resting, his reduced minutes, at times you wonder how a legend is going to take it. And he just takes everything with class and humility. I’d say there are probably 1000 incredible moments that you have with Diego Chará. It’s the little moments that make Diego Chará — not the big moments.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor