Manolo Jiménez has had numerous ‘sports children’ throughout his career as a coach, especially during his time in the Sevilla first team and youth academy: Jesús Navas, Sergio Ramos, José Antonio Reyes, Antonio Puerta, Antoñito… “I feel fulfilled. In addition to being a coach, I am a trainer. I like to transmit what I have learned and that we do not lose the raw material,” he points out.
During his time at Cerro Porteño, he left a new ‘godson’ who could become Rúben Amorim’s first signing at Manchester United: Diego Basilio León Blanco (Colonia Yguazú, 3-4-2007). According to Fabrizio Romano, the ‘red devils’ will pay (up to) 7.5 million euros – depending on various bonuses – for the Paraguayan ‘3’ to join the ‘red devils’ discipline in July 2025.
He scored on his debut… and in his second game in the elite
The Spaniard, now coach of APOEL, was the one who made him debut in the First Division last August at 17 years, 3 months and 30 days. To make matters worse, he scored the winning goal in his debut against Sportivo Ameliano (1-0) and went to hug Manolo Jiménez. A milestone (scoring) that he repeated a week later, in his second game as a professional.
Diego León runs to hug Manolo Jiménez after scoring.
“I took a few months, before training at Cerro Porteño, to get to know the youth academy and help from the base. The first thing I want to say is that Diego and many other kids who live in the interior have a lot of merit, who They get up very early to take a bus with no fixed schedule, they arrive to train at 7.30 in the morning and then they go to study. The tenacity, desire and enthusiasm they put into it is admirable,” Manolo Jiménez previously told MARCA. to get into the matter.
“I didn’t have money to buy a ball and I played with fabrics”
You are right. León, also wanted by Arsenal, was born 300 kilometers from Asunción, in an agricultural environment and is the youngest of nine siblings. “Many times he couldn’t afford to buy a ball and he would grab any cloth, roll it up and say: ‘I’m going to play in Cerro,” recalls his mother, Brígida Blanco.
Diego León poses with his family.
That’s how it was. In 2020, at the age of 13, he signed for Cerro Porteño and it didn’t take long for him to stand out as a scorer… despite playing as a left back. Midway through the season, shortly before joining the first team, he was top scorer in the under-18 category with nine goals.
“He has innate potential: physically he is a marvel”
Manolo Jiménez’s call changed his life: “We played with a right-footer as a left-back and, above all, as a result of Cecilio Domínguez’s injury [extremo] It weighed us down a lot. We lacked depth and had to reinvent the team. Diego was a player in training, but I saw his strength and quality and I dared to call him. Physically he is a marvel. “He has innate, incredible potential, in addition to having a great offensive vocation and ease in scoring.”
Diego León has a great offensive vocation and ability to score goals
Manolo Jimenez
The fourth best under 18 in the world
Suddenly, he took over the lane: “He burst in with force and we bet on giving him the whole band. We played without a winger, with a midfielder covering his back, and he gave us a lot because, even though he is very left-footed, he has an outlet for both profiles: he gave us width on the outside and he also did damage with his diagolans on the inside. The only thing I asked of Diego was that he play in the first team as well as in the youth teams.”
The teachings of the former coach of Seville, AEK, Zaragoza and Las Palmas, among others, ‘came in’. Diego León closed his first season in Paraguay’s First Division as the full-back who completed the most crosses into the area, the third with the most progressive runs [de más de 10 metros hacia la portería rival] he made and the third who came into contact with the ball in the area the most times. He also scored two goals. Hence, based on his performance, the CIES Football Observatory designated him as the fourth best under-18 player in the world… apart from Lamine Yamal, according to the study itself.
The under 18s with the best performance in the world. Lamine Yamal, on the sidelines.CIES Football Observatory
Manolo Jiménez knows what he’s talking about. He was a ‘cook’ (left back, to be precise), before he was a ‘friar’. “He lacks, perhaps, a point of balance in defensive transitions: when to anticipate, when to time… Decision making is what differentiates good footballers from the best and that is something that Diego, for sure, is going to go acquiring. It has strength and quality, which is the most important thing.
Decision making is what differentiates good footballers from the best and that is something that Diego, for sure, is going to acquire.
Manolo Jimenez
What’s more, the APOEL coach is convinced that the transfer to Manchester United, if it finally takes place, would be positive for the Guarani: “He has character and personality. If he comes to Europe and is able to adapt to England, he will grow a lot.” .
Cerro Porteño celebrates the nomination of Diego León by the CIES as the fourth best under 18 in the world. Instagram
“Marcelo is my mirror”
He has the same ‘confidence’ that he has on the ‘court’ off it.’ “My mirror in the position is the full-back Marcelo,” confesses Diego León. They do share some similarities, especially when cutting inward and starting from a standing start.
Manolo Jiménez, however, prefers to take it step by step. “Marcelo scored an incredible goal for us in Libertadores,” he remembers. “Diego has incredible conditions, very promising, but he has a long process ahead of him. Hopefully one day we can say that he has had a career similar to that of Marcelo or, if he signs for United, to what Evra did at Old Trafford” , the former Sevilla coach says goodbye when referring to his (pen)last ‘godson’. Another one, by the way, that looks good.
