Luis Diaz's Goal Drought Amid Bayern's Celebrations

In a corner of the Allianz Arena dressing room, the party just kept rolling.

Bayern had put seven past Union Berlin, the music was loud, the jokes louder, and Harry Kane was the last to drift out, close to midnight, gingerbread heart in hand. The number “100” was iced across the front – a sweet little tribute to his latest milestone.

“The coach had us give a few speeches in the dressing room,” Kane said, still grinning. Michael Olise’s first hat-trick for Bayern. Ismael Saibari’s first goal for the club. Kane’s own 100th strike. Serge Gnabry back after injury. One storyline of joy after another. When asked whose speech was the shortest, Kane laughed: Olise’s, of course.

No surprise there.

And then, on the other side of that same dressing room, the flip side of the night: Luis Diaz, slipping out of the stadium in silence.

The odd man out in a night of joy

While Bayern’s forwards traded punchlines and records, Diaz once again walked away empty-handed. No goal. No assist. No release. The 29-year-old has now gone five Bayern games without scoring or creating, a run that stretches all the way back to his strike for 5-1 in the Bundesliga opener against VfB Stuttgart.

Since that day, the chances have come. The goals have not.

Schalke, Osnabrück in the cup, Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League – in each of those games Diaz passed up at least one clear opportunity. Last weekend in Elversberg, he even managed to annoy his own team-mate Josip Stanisic. Picked out perfectly in the box by Olise, Diaz chose not to finish first time. Instead he seemed to chase a highlight-reel moment, juggling ideas in his head, before producing only a tame backheel.

Against Union, his best moment did end with the ball in the net, after Bayern’s slickest move of the match. The flag went up. Offside. Another night, another almost.

It also meant he failed to keep a promise. In an interview with Sky/RTL before the game, Diaz had said: “I think that goal will come in the next game. You also have to stay calm mentally so it does not weigh on you. The important thing is to keep working on it, to improve. I know that it is only the chance conversion. It is only the finish that is missing – and then it will be fine.”

The finish is still missing.

Numbers that tell a different story

What makes Diaz’s drought so striking is the contrast with those around him.

According to Sofascore, he has already missed six big chances in the Bundesliga this season. After the first four league matchdays, his expected-goals figure stood at 3.1 – the numbers of a player who should already be celebrating several goals, not searching for one.

Kane has three Bundesliga goals from an xG of 2.17. Olise, outstanding since the start of the campaign, has four from an xG of 2.65. Across all competitions, Olise already sits on eight goals and three assists. Saibari, who replaced Diaz in the 63rd minute against Union and promptly scored, has one goal and three assists in just 178 Bundesliga minutes.

The contrast is brutal. The hierarchy on the pitch, for now, is not.

A break instead of a call-up

Diaz will not get the chance to put things right immediately. His next opportunity will not come until 10 October, away at FC Augsburg. Before that, international football takes over – without him.

Colombia head coach Nestor Lorenzo, in agreement with Diaz, has decided not to call him up. The winger will be given a break. A rare pause after a punishing year.

Last season, Diaz played 51 times for Bayern, racking up 26 goals and 23 assists. On top of that came 16 games for Colombia, with seven goals and three assists. An exhausting schedule that never really let up, even during the World Cup, where he helped Colombia reach the last 16 but still struggled with his finishing.

Back in Munich, that problem has deepened. Against Union, he barely found himself on the end of anything. The issue is no longer just conversion. It is involvement.

Bayern’s board member for sport, Max Eberl, is not panicking. “Some would be glad if they had a dip like his,” he said on Friday, before stressing the logic behind the break. “In South America, the international matches are not absolutely necessary now and it is simply good for the player. He has just had a lot of games. So in that respect it is nice.”

Diaz, Eberl explained, will “first have a bit of a holiday and then get going again. He will have his programme. There is no need to worry that he will not come back fit.”

The back-up he wanted but never got

Curiously, Diaz had almost seen this coming.

In that same Sky/RTL interview, he admitted he would have welcomed direct competition for his position. “Of course I always want to play. But if someone is there who can help in my position: welcome. That helps a lot when things are not going well. Then the team-mate is there to help you – and that way you alternate. That is very important. I would have liked it. But fine, it did not happen. We are still good as we are.”

Bayern had in fact planned to bring in that kind of back-up. They said so publicly. Then, shortly before the transfer window closed, they loaned Arijon Ibrahimovic to FC Augsburg. The move surprised the 20-year-old and left Diaz as the only natural option on the left wing.

So are Bayern now forced to rethink in January?

“Where did Isi score his goal from today?” Eberl replied, when asked whether the club might revisit the idea of signing another left-sided attacker.

It was a rhetorical question. Saibari’s strike came from the left side of the penalty area, the very zone Diaz usually patrols. The Moroccan is not a classic winger – he does not have the raw pace – but his intelligence, vision and technique allow him to operate almost anywhere across the front line. Gnabry can also shift across and cover on the left.

On paper, Diaz is not without competition. On the pitch, his status is still strong. With Vincent Kompany keen to rotate heavily over the coming weeks and a string of midweek fixtures on the horizon, the Colombian is unlikely to lose his place outright. Not yet.

A familiar reset button

This is not the first time Bayern have sent Diaz away to clear his head.

In December 2025, suspended in the Champions League after a red card and banned in the Bundesliga due to a fifth yellow, he suddenly found himself with a gap in his schedule. Kompany seized the moment.

The coach told him to go away “for a few days,” explaining that it was simply sensible for Diaz to step back and return “mentally and physically at one hundred per cent.”

He came back sharper. He delivered a strong second half of the season.

Now, the reset button has been pressed again – only much earlier in the campaign, and with a very different backdrop. Bayern are flying, the goals are flowing, the dressing room is full of speeches and milestones.

Somewhere in that noise, Luis Diaz is trying to find his finish again.

Will this be the break that brings back the ruthless version of him – or the moment when others turn his position into a genuine fight?