{"id":353152,"date":"2026-06-19T08:31:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=353152"},"modified":"2026-06-19T08:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:01:33","slug":"luis-diaz-shines-3-years-after-parents-kidnapping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/06\/19\/luis-diaz-shines-3-years-after-parents-kidnapping\/","title":{"rendered":"Luis D\u00edaz shines 3 years after parents\u2019 kidnapping"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Colombia\u2019s Luis Diaz (7) celebrates after scoring his side\u2019s second goal throughout the World Cup Group K soccer match between Uzbekistan and Colombia in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo\/Silvia Izquierdo)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

MEXICO CITY\u2014After contributing a goal and an assist in his World Cup debut, Colombia\u2019s Luis D\u00edaz walked to the sidelines to search for his father. They spotted one another, fulfilling a dream that was years within the making.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of things got here to me from the past,\u201d D\u00edaz said after Colombia beat Uzbekistan 3-1 on Wednesday night. \u201cI worked for this. I fought to be here at this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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First, Colombia did not qualify for the 2022 World Cup. Then his parents were kidnapped.<\/p>\n

In late 2023, Luis Manuel \u201cMane\u201d D\u00edaz and his wife, Cilenis Marulanda, were captured by armed guerillas on the Colombia-Venezuela border. Marulanda was quickly rescued, but Mane D\u00edaz was not.<\/p>\n

Luis D\u00edaz, playing for Liverpool on the time, missed two games to return home to Barrancas and advocate for his father\u2019s freedom. Upon his return to the club, he scored and revealed an undershirt with the words \u201cFreedom for Papa\u201d printed in Spanish.<\/p>\n

The gesture garnered international support and increased pressure on the Colombian government to act. Mane was released after being held for 12 days, and father and son had an emotional embrace after they reunited.<\/p>\n

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This week, D\u00edaz\u2019s father posted a viral video of himself praying over his son\u2019s jersey ahead of his first World Cup game.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz, who now plays for Bayern Munich, scored the go-ahead goal shortly after Uzbekistan equalized, lifting Colombia to its first World Cup victory since 2018\u2014while his father watched from the stands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel there was at all times something that kept us from being comfy,\u201d D\u00edaz said. \u201cI feel that today, I’m at my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Colombia\u2019s Luis Diaz (7) celebrates after scoring his side\u2019s second goal throughout the World Cup Group K soccer match between Uzbekistan and Colombia in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo\/Silvia Izquierdo) MEXICO CITY\u2014After contributing a goal and an assist in his World Cup debut, Colombia\u2019s Luis D\u00edaz walked to the sidelines to search […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":353153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[1062,9496,8086,4347,928,1303],"class_list":["post-353152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-diaz","tag-kidnapping","tag-luis","tag-parents","tag-shines","tag-years"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353152"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353155,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353152\/revisions\/353155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}