Having sat out a three game suspension, Diego was back in the Bundesliga on Sunday and had to face pretty much what he has become used to. He was fouled, shoved around, kicked and even as he sat on the deck having been dumped, he had to incur the angry verbal attacks of his opponents as well as the ‘boo’s’ and whistles from the spectators in the ground with every subsequent ball contact. Contrary to what occurred in Frankfurt, this time Werder’s number 10 didn’t allow himself to be provoked away by the atmosphere, as a number of the Armenia players clearly were after the game. Both Markus Bollmann and Daniel Halfar complained about Diego’s ostensible diving and the bonus he supposedly has with referee’s.
“In spite of all of the things taking place on the fringes, I really love playing here”, remarked Diego and the Brazilian continued: “I really just don’t understand it. On the pitch, my opposing players all apologised to me for their fouls. I really don’t get the fact that they said such things then after the match. I suppose it’s just something I’ll have to live with.”
The young Brazilian international is not about to have his enjoyment of the game ruined though: “No-one deserves to be booed or whistled at but I’ll only start worrying about that when our own fans start to do it – and that hasn’t happened. In spite of what’s taking place on the fringes, I love playing here. There is a lot of talk that goes on before every game, one person saying one thing, the next saying something else. I can only continue to work and play and try to give the fans something to cheer about.”