Diego Chará

Diego Ferney Chará Zamora (born April 5, 1986) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder and captains Major League Soccer club Portland Timbers.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Chará and the second or maternal family name is Zamora.
Diego Chará
Chará with the Portland Timbers in 2015
Personal information
Full name Diego Ferney Chará Zamora
Date of birth (1986-04-05) April 5, 1986
Place of birth Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)[1]
Position(s) Defensive midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Portland Timbers
Number 21
Youth career
Deportes Quindío
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2004–2008 Deportes Quindío 124 (2)
2009 América de Cali 31 (1)
2010–2011 Deportes Tolima 51 (5)
2011– Portland Timbers 343 (12)
2020 Portland Timbers 2 1 (0)
International career‡
2010–2011 Colombia 2 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of April 2, 2023
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of October 11, 2011

Career

Club

Chará began his career in the youth ranks of Deportes Quindío. In 2004, he moved up to the senior side and became an important player for Quindío. The talented midfielder made 124 league appearances and scored 2 goals while with Quindío. As a result of his play he began to draw the attention of the top clubs in Colombia and in 2009 joined América de Cali. In one year with America Chará made 31 league appearances and scored 1 goal. The following season, he joined Deportes Tolima and was a key player in his club's run to the quarterfinal of the 2010 Copa Sudamericana. The following season, he helped Tolima qualify to the 2011 Copa Libertadores. During the 2011 Copa Libertadores Chará appeared in seven games, and provided an assist in a 2-0 win over Brazilian power Corinthians in the early stages of the tournament.

As a result of his play during the Copa Libertadores run Chará started to receive interest from Major League Soccer side Portland Timbers. In April 2011, Chará signed with Portland and became the club's first ever Designated Player.[2] On August 20, he scored his first goal in Major League Soccer after just 78 seconds of the home match against Cascadia Cup rivals Vancouver Whitecaps FC.[3] It broke the record for the fastest MLS goal for the club.

Chará became the second Major League Soccer player to record more than 30,000 minutes for a single club on March 19, 2023 in a 5–1 loss to Atlanta United.[4]

International

Chará has been capped twice for the Colombia national team. Chará played his first game for Colombia on November 18, 2010 in a friendly match against Peru.[5]

Personal

Chará's older brother, Felipe Chará, and his younger brother, Yimmi Chará are also professional footballers.[6] Yimmi currently also plays for Portland Timbers, officially signing on January 2, 2020.

Chará became a naturalized United States citizen in August 2019.[7] Before that, he held a U.S. green card which qualified him as a domestic player for MLS roster purposes.[8]

Career statistics

Club
As of match played April 2, 2023[9]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National cup League cup Continental Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
El Pepe| 2009 Categoría Primera A 31 1 — — 6[lower-alpha 1] 0 37 1
Deportes Tolima 2010 Categoría Primera A 42 3 — — 6[lower-alpha 2] 0 48 3
2011 Categoría Primera A 9 2 — — 7[lower-alpha 1] 0 16 2
Total 51 5 0 0 0 0 13 0 64 5
Portland Timbers 2011 Major League Soccer 28 2 — — — 28 2
2012 Major League Soccer 28 0 1 0 — — 29 0
2013 Major League Soccer 31 0 2 0 4[lower-alpha 3] 0 — 37 0
2014 Major League Soccer 31 2 1 0 — 0[lower-alpha 4] 0 32 2
2015 Major League Soccer 27 2 0 0 5[lower-alpha 3] 1 — 32 3
2016 Major League Soccer 30 0 0 0 — 4[lower-alpha 4] 0 34 0
2017 Major League Soccer 29 1 0 0 1[lower-alpha 3] 0 — 30 1
2018 Major League Soccer 27 2 3 0 6[lower-alpha 3] 0 — 36 2
2019 Major League Soccer 30 0 4 0 1[lower-alpha 3] 0 — 35 0
2020 Major League Soccer 20 1 — 5[lower-alpha 5] 0 — 25 1
2021 Major League Soccer 28 2 — 4[lower-alpha 3] 0 4[lower-alpha 4] 0 36 2
2022 Major League Soccer 28 0 1 0 — — 29 0
2023 Major League Soccer 6 0 0 0 0 0 — 6 0
Total 343 12 12 0 26 1 8 0 389 13
Portland Timbers 2 2020 USL Championship 1 0 — — — 1 0
Total 426 18 12 0 26 1 27 0 491 19
  1. Appearances in Copa Libertadores
  2. Appearances in Copa Sudamericana
  3. Appearances in MLS Cup Playoffs
  4. Appearances in CONCACAF Champions League
  5. Four appearances in MLS is Back Tournament knockout stage, one appearance in MLS Cup Playoffs

International
As of match played October 11, 2011[10]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National teamYearAppsGoals
Colombia 201010
201110
Total20

Honours

Portland Timbers

Individual

References
  1. "Diego Chará". Portland Timbers. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  2. Portland Timbers (2011-04-13). "Timbers Sign Diego Chará as First Designated Player in Club History". Portland Timbers. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
  3. Archived October 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Timbers, Portland. "Diego Chara hits 30,000 MLS regular season minutes | PTFC". Portland Timbers. Retrieved 2023-03-20.
  5. "Sergio Otálvaro y Diego Chará debutarán con Colombia ante Perú". November 17, 2010.
  6. Gruesso, Héctor Fabio (2 July 2009). ""Mi consigna es ganar todo con el Deportivo Cali", dijo Felipe Chará" ["My motto is to win everything with Deportivo Cali", said Felipe Chará] (in Spanish). El Tiempo.
  7. @TimbersFC (16 August 2019). ""Excuse my raspy voice, last night I..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  8. Kip Kesgard, community blogger. "Timbers announce formation of new Television affiliation while awaiting the return of traveling players | OregonLive.com". Blog.oregonlive.com. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
  9. Diego Chará at Soccerway. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  10. Diego Chará at National-Football-Teams.com
  11. McCauley, Kim (December 6, 2015). "Goals, screw-ups, stats and more: Everything great from the MLS Cup Final". SBNation.com.
  12. "Dario Zuparic goal clinches MLS Back is Tournament for Portland Timbers". The Guardian. 12 August 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  13. "Portland Timbers become first Cascadia club to reach the MLS Cup: "We want to win the big one" | MLSsoccer.com".
  14. "2019 MLS All-Star Roster". Major League Soccer. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  15. "2020 MLS Best XI presented by The Home Depot". Major League Soccer. 20 November 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
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