Timbers captain Diego Chara is on the cusp of playing in 377 regular season matches; an MLS record for matches played for a single club. That’s more than 33,000 minutes on the field – every single one of them for the Portland Timbers. I’ve been lucky enough to photograph almost all of them and many other moments off the field.
Our photo archive has over 7,000 photos of Diego. And to honor this achievement, I attempted to identify 21 of my favorite images of him, showing the impact Chara has made both on and off the field.
My office at Providence Park had hundreds of prints laid out across the floor. I consulted with my fellow creators on which images we should include. I’ve looked at every photo I’ve taken of him, trying to find the right mix. To tell the story of someone who means so much to this club and community is no easy task, but it has been incredibly fun to look back at the last 14 seasons.
This is the very first photo I captured of Diego on April 23, 2011, at LA Galaxy. I should have known then that the smile was here to stay. I remember he arrived in LA from Colombia not even 24 hours before the match. I asked players on the sideline if they had seen him yet, and Rodrigo Lopez said, “There he is over there,” gesturing towards our first Designated Player. He would enter the match at halftime; the moment this record-setting run began.
One of the topics Diego and I talk about often is our kids. He is a great Dad, and his family is a major part of who he is. In this photo, Diego walks on the pitch with daughters Mariajose and Allison (held by former teammate Jose Valencia) after a match in 2013.
Fast forward to the magical season of 2015. I love this celebration between Diego and Darlington Nagbe after a goal against the Rapids.
That 2015 season ended with winning MLS Cup. Here is Diego, along with Dairon Asprilla and Jorge Villafaña during the championship parade through downtown Portland.
One of the things that makes Diego stand out from most others is his commitment to this community. It's hard to find a single photo that summarizes this, but this image from a Stand Together Week event in 2018 shows him playing soccer with a group of kids at a Portland park, making everyone’s day happier.
Diego celebrates with Sebastián Blanco after Blanco scored one of the most memorable goals in Timbers history in the 2018 Western Conference Final in Kansas City.
Another record-setting match. This time, the coldest match in MLS history – a frigid 18 degrees at kickoff in Colorado in March of 2019. Diego jogs off the field at halftime with snow in his hair.
The year 2019 was a big one for the Chara’s. They welcomed twins, Diego and Angel, into the family in October of 2018. During a photo shoot in May of 2019, the entire Chara family posed for a photo while his parents were visiting from Colombia.
Perhaps one of the coolest events I’ve witnessed with Diego was the day he became a U.S. Citizen in August of 2019. With Diego sitting in the back of a courtroom, crowded with people from all over the world, the judge apologized for not being able to speak loudly, without knowing who was there saying, “I was at the Timbers match last night and lost my voice!”
Diego is the ultimate competitor. He will chase you down, knock you over, foul you, get a yellow card and then help you right back up – like he did here in a 2020 match against Jordan Morris and the Sounders.
He is the first person to stand up for his teammates, too. Sources within the team credit this moment in a late summer matchup against the Sounders in 2021 as the moment they knew this team was together as one. Led by Diego, they had each other’s back and would advance to that year’s MLS Cup.
When teammates talk about Diego, they mention his professionalism on the training ground. He is always doing the right things, taking care of his body, and putting in the work to be one of the best to ever do it. He sets the example. In this photo, he jogs around the pitch during a sunset session in 2021.
So many of my favorite Diego moments involve his family. I love the post-game tradition when all the kids come onto the field. This image is from November 2021 after a match against Austin.
Diego with the Western Conference Championship trophy after beating Real Salt Lake to advance to the MLS Cup in December 2021.
A little fun fact about Diego: he hates swimming. It’s always a little funny when the coaches have a pool session planned; like this one at the hotel pool in Tucson, Ariz., in 2022.
In 2022, the Timbers won the Cascadia Cup and this photo of Diego standing on log slabs, lifting the trophy, after beating Seattle is one of my all-time favorites. I have this photo hanging on the wall in my office.
The Chara family still lives in Cali, Colombia. Diego, his brothers Yimmi and Luis Felipe, and his mom Graciela have started a soccer academy there called Dinastia Chara. In December of 2023, we went to Cali to document the academy and where Diego grew up. In the same neighborhood and on the same fields where he and his brothers played, the Chara’s are teaching the next generation of kids from Colombia how to be professionals and Diego is still loved by everyone in the area.
Diego smiles with teammates in the locker room after game number 370 in New York City, an important early-season, road win against New York City FC.
Diego tied the most games played for a single team last weekend in Columbus, Ohio. Fittingly, the captain of the opposing team was Darlington Nagbe, who was there (as a teammate) for Diego’s very first match in 2011.
There might never be another Diego Chara. I’m incredibly thankful I’ve been able to document the career thus far of such a legend.
