Luis Diaz made the headlines on Tuesday night as his hat-trick helped Liverpool to a 4-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen, and his post-match interview has gone viral.
Diaz netted his first-ever career hat-trick after starting up front in the Reds’ fourth game of the Champions League, netting the first, third and fourth goals in a half-hour flurry.
The Colombian was unsurprisingly named Man of the Match, while he was able to take home the match ball as reward for his treble.
And though he is not the most comfortable English speaker, Diaz joined Amazon Prime Sport’s coverage for a post-match interview with reporter Alex Aljoe.
The footage has gone viral – and not due to anything Liverpool’s No. 7 said himself – with Aljoe’s ability to conduct the interview while simultaneously translating English questions to Spanish and Spanish answers to English widely praised.
It included Diaz’s hunt for the match ball, as he explained: “It’s the most important thing that I go and find that ball now, because I need to keep it somewhere special at home!
“I’m so happy with the three points today and the win.”
In a week that saw Sky Sports reporter Gary Cotterill criticised for his attempts to shame English answers out of incoming Man United coach Ruben Amorim – speaking in Portugal about a Sporting CP game – Aljoe’s technique was hugely refreshing.
What an impressive piece of interviewing this is from @alexaljoe.
To have the poise to speak in two languages simultaneously, remembering the answers and translating for the audience at home, all when live on camera is remarkable.
— HLTCO (@HLTCO) November 6, 2024
Amazon Prime have a woman speaking English to us, Spanish to Luis Diaz then translating it for us just so we can get an interview with him
Sky Sports need to step their game up half of them struggle with English ?
— Jürgen (@Jurgegenpress2) November 5, 2024
Reporter interviewing Diaz then was class, having to process that much info in 2 languages live on air is crazy
— Jake (@JM99__) November 5, 2024
This reporter simultaneously translating her own interview with Diaz on live TV is awesome! ?
— James Taylor (@James_M_T) November 5, 2024
This was brilliant and refreshing to watch. The genuine enthusiasm she showed was great and made the interview more interesting and made Diaz more comfortable
— Ben (@WineDineAndLFC) November 6, 2024
Thats excellent work TBH. Had interviewer asking the new Man Utd manager to speak in English the other day and here is a perfect example of an interview taking place without ignorance or arrogance. Makes it a lot easier for Diaz to speak and you can see he is comfortable doing so https://t.co/6xJemIvxYU
— William Prentice (@william91080) November 7, 2024
With football coverage often brought down by lazy punditry and attempts to engineer controversy, this interview was an example of top-tier live sports journalism.
Diaz clearly appreciated it, while Aljoe was able to coax interesting answers out of a player who is not typically heard from in the English media.
“We have top-quality players all over the pitch, but actually I really enjoyed playing in that position today,” Diaz said of his night as No. 9.
“Wherever I’m playing on the pitch I’m going to work hard and I hope I can help the team.”
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