Harry Kane's Celebration Overshadowed by Luis Diaz's Struggles
The music was still thumping through the concrete when Harry Kane finally stepped out into the Munich night, gingerbread heart in hand, 100 iced across the front. Inside, the Bayern dressing room had been one long celebration after a 7-0 demolition of Union Berlin – goals, milestones, comebacks, all neatly wrapped into one ruthless evening.
“The coach had us give a few speeches in the dressing room,” Kane said just after midnight, grinning as he ticked off the list. Michael Olise’s first hat-trick for Bayern. Ismael Saibari’s first goal for the club. Kane’s own 100th strike. Serge Gnabry back from injury. When asked whose speech was the shortest, Kane laughed and nodded towards Olise.
No one was surprised.
And then there was Luis Diaz.
One gloomy storyline in a perfect night
While the rest of the squad lingered in the glow of a statement win, Diaz slipped out of the Allianz Arena in silence. No quotes, no gestures, no visible frustration. Just a quiet exit that said plenty.
The contrast could hardly have been starker. On a night full of happy subplots, Diaz cut the figure of the unlucky man in a room of lottery winners – the striker who cannot quite shake the cloud that has settled over his finishing.
His last goal for Bayern? You have to go back to the Bundesliga opener, when he made it 5-1 against VfB Stuttgart. Since then, five games. No goals, no assists. For a player who terrorised defences last season, that is a jarring line of zeros.
Worse, the misses have not been half-chances. Against Schalke, Osnabrück in the cup and Bodö/Glimt in the Champions League, Diaz passed up several excellent opportunities. In Elversberg last week, he even drew open irritation from Josip Stanisic after Olise picked him out perfectly in the box and Diaz chose artistry over efficiency. Instead of pulling the trigger, he seemed to have a reel of tricks in mind and ended up producing only a tame backheel.
Against Union, his most eye-catching contribution was the one that did not count: a crisp finish to cap Bayern’s best move of the game up to that point, only for the flag to go up for offside.
No goal, no assist – and a broken promise. Before the game, Diaz had told Sky/RTL: “I think that goal will come in the next game. You also have to stay calm mentally so it does not weigh on you. The important thing is to keep working on it, to improve. I know that it is only the chance conversion. It is only the finish that is missing – and then it will be fine.”
The finish is still missing.
Numbers that sting
The underlying data only sharpen the picture. According to Sofascore, Diaz has already missed six big chances in the Bundesliga this season. After four league matchdays, his expected-goals tally sat at 3.1 – more than enough to have eased the pressure.
Others are cashing in. Kane has three league goals from an xG of 2.17. Olise, in explosive early-season form, has four from an xG of 2.65 and, across all competitions, already stands at eight goals and three assists. Saibari, who replaced Diaz in the 63rd minute against Union, has one goal and three assists in just 178 Bundesliga minutes.
Diaz, by contrast, is stuck on that single strike from opening day.
It is not as if this came out of nowhere. Even at the World Cup, where he helped Colombia reach the last 16, his chance conversion faltered. Back in Munich, the issue grew more pronounced. Against Union, the problem was not just finishing; he rarely even arrived in the right spots.
A break instead of Colombia
Now comes a pause – and an unusual one. Diaz will not play again for Bayern until 10 October at FC Augsburg. Before that, the international break intervenes. For him, it will be a break in the truest sense.
Colombia head coach Nestor Lorenzo, after discussions with Diaz, opted not to call him up. The idea: rest, not more travel, after a draining campaign. Last season Diaz played 51 games for Bayern, producing a staggering 26 goals and 23 assists, plus 16 more appearances for Colombia with seven goals and three assists. The mileage has been enormous.
“Some would be glad if they had a dip like his,” Bayern’s board member for sport Max Eberl remarked on Friday, before spelling out the logic behind the decision. In South America, he said, the upcoming internationals are “not absolutely necessary now and it is simply good for the player. He has just had a lot of games. So in that respect it is nice.”
Diaz will “first have a bit of a holiday and then get going again. He will have his programme. There is no need to worry that he will not come back fit,” Eberl added.
A reset, not a reprimand.
The back-up that never came
Curiously, Diaz had almost predicted a scenario like this. In his Sky/RTL interview, he openly admitted he would have welcomed competition in his position.
“Of course I always want to play. But if someone is there who can help in my position: welcome. That helps a lot when things are not going well. Then the team-mate is there to help you – and that way you alternate. That is very important. I would have liked it. But fine, it did not happen. We are still good as we are.”
Bayern’s plan had actually been to bring in precisely that kind of back-up for the left wing. Instead, shortly before the transfer window closed, they loaned Arijon Ibrahimovic to FC Augsburg – a move that surprised the 20-year-old as much as anyone.
When asked on Friday whether the club might revisit the idea of signing another option for Diaz in winter, given that his flank is the only one not nominally doubled up, Eberl did not answer directly. He simply asked: “Where did Isi score his goal from today?”
The answer: from the left side of the penalty area.
Saibari is not a classic winger. He lacks the outright pace of a touchline sprinter. But his vision, technique and intelligence allow him to slot into almost any attacking role. Gnabry, too, can operate on the left. On paper, Diaz is not without cover.
In practice, his starting spot is not under acute threat. With Vincent Kompany set to keep rotating his stars through a packed calendar – and several midweek fixtures looming after the international break – Diaz will get chances. Plenty of them.
A familiar solution
This is not even the first time Bayern have prescribed a mid-season holiday for their Colombian forward. In December 2025, suspended in the Champions League after a red card and simultaneously banned in the Bundesliga due to his fifth yellow, Diaz found himself sidelined on all fronts. Kompany responded by sending him away for a few days.
“I think it is simply sensible now that he is away for a few days and then comes back mentally and physically at one hundred per cent,” the coach said back then.
Diaz returned refreshed and tore through the second half of that campaign.
Now the break comes earlier, the context is different, but the idea is the same: clear the head, recharge the legs, reset the radar in front of goal.
Bayern’s dressing room is currently full of players riding hot streaks and celebrating milestones. The question for the weeks ahead is simple: when Diaz walks back into that room after his holiday, will he still be the unlucky outlier – or the next name on the list of those with something to celebrate?
