Luis Díaz

Atlético Junior

Luis Fernando Díaz Marulanda was born on 13 January 1997 in Barrancas, La Guajira, and began playing football at the age of six. Nicknamed "Luchito", he attended a small football school run by his father. In 2014, at the age of 17, he attended an open trial hosted by Atlético Junior and impressed enough to join the youth team.

He was included in Colombia's 22-man squad for the 2015 Copa Americana de Pueblos Indígenas, due to his Wayuu ethnicity. After impressing during the tournament, he joined the senior team of Atlético Junior in 2016, being immediately assigned to farm team Barranquilla. Given Díaz's slender build and a potentially malnourished appearance, he was given a dietary plan by Barranquilla to gain 10 kg.

Díaz made his senior debut on 26 April 2016, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 2–1 Categoría Primera B home loss against Deportivo Pereira. His first senior goal came on 14 May, as he scored the winner in a 2–1 home defeat of Cúcuta Deportivo.

On 6 June 2017, after already making his first team debut in the year's Copa Colombia, Díaz was subsequently promoted to Junior's main squad. He made his Categoría Primera A debut on 27 August, replacing Matías Mier in a 3–2 loss at Once Caldas, and scored his first goal on 20 September in a 3–1 Copa Sudamericana home win against Cerro Porteño.

Díaz became a regular starter during the 2018 season, and scored his first goal in the top tier on 4 February of that year, by netting the game's only in a home success over Atlético Bucaramanga. He also added braces against Once Caldas, Atlético Huila and Rionegro Águilas, ending the campaign with 16 goals overall.