Timbers legend Diego Valeri helping guide Portland men’s soccer during impressive season

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Portland Pilots men’s soccer team has had an incredible start to their season and are currently ranked #2 in the country, which is their highest ranking since 1992.

Part of the secret sauce for their squad may be a new addition this season, and if you are a soccer fan in the city of Portland in the slightest, you know him.

“I’m learning from them, from all of them,” said Diego Valeri. “That kind of relationship I have with all of them, it makes me better. It makes me a better person, and it makes me better in soccer.”

To say the least, the Portland Timbers legend is doing anything but sitting still in retirement.
He’s running a wine label out of Dundee, calling MLS games on Apple TV, founded his own training academy called the Maestro Method, and now has joined the Portland Pilots men’s soccer team as the Director of Player Development.

“I got in love. It’s a unique environment for me,” said Valeri of joining the squad. “There’s nothing like this in South America. I really wanted to experience it. Sometimes I think that it would be fantastic for me to have this experience in Argentina. A college where you’re so connected with your teammates because of the school and with the game, with the game in the middle.”

Valeri is clearly loving the college experience he never had, and the team is also very clearly loving him.

“What’s most impressive about him is his humility, his ability to want to give back to the guys and share his experiences in that player development role,” said Portland Pilots men’s soccer head coach Nick Carlin-Voigt. “It’s a non-coaching role, but he’s played at the highest level. He’s represented everything beautiful about our city and the Rose City, is a Timbers legend, but he comes here and he’s just one of the guys, and he has a voice.”

Valeri could’ve done a job like this anywhere, especially since he lives in Miami.
However, as Portland Pilots head coach Nick Carlin-Voigt touched on, doing this in this city was important to Valeri.

“It’s a big one for me. Since I arrived in Portland, I was welcomed and it became my home,” said Valeri. “I just want to spend the time that I can here.”