Luis Diaz Faces Drought Amid Bayern's Celebration

The music was still thumping behind the dressing-room door when Harry Kane finally emerged, just after midnight, gingerbread heart in hand. Iced on the front: a big, bold “100”. Another landmark for Bayern’s centrepiece striker at the end of a 7-0 demolition of Union Berlin.

“The coach had us give a few speeches in the dressing room,” Kane said, still grinning. Michael Olise had just scored his first hat-trick for Bayern. Ismael Saibari had his first goal for the club. Kane himself had reached 100 goals. Serge Gnabry was back after injury. One reason to celebrate followed the next. When asked whose speech was the shortest, Kane laughed: Olise’s, of course.

Inside, the mood was light. Outside, one man slipped away quietly.

The odd one out in a night of joy

Luis Diaz left the Allianz Arena without a word. No complaint, no visible anger. Just a striker walking through a tunnel that must feel longer with every goalless game.

The contrast could hardly have been sharper. Bayern’s forwards had filled their boots again. Diaz, in the middle of a barren run, walked past the party.

His last goal for Bayern? The 5-1 strike against VfB Stuttgart on the opening Bundesliga weekend. Since then, five games. No goals. No assists. Too many missed chances.

Against Schalke, Osnabrück in the cup and Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League, Diaz squandered opportunities that used to look routine for him. Last week in Elversberg, he drew the ire of Josip Stanisic when, instead of finishing first time from a perfect Olise cutback in the box, he tried to improvise something spectacular and ended up producing only a tame backheel.

Against Union, his most dangerous moment ended in frustration again. He finished off what had been Bayern’s best move of the night to that point, only to see the flag go up for offside. The wait continued.

He had gone into the game with a promise. “I think that goal will come in the next game,” he had told Sky/RTL. He spoke about staying calm mentally, about working, improving, knowing it was “only the chance conversion” and that “only the finish is missing”.

Ninety minutes later, the promise was broken.

Numbers that sting

The data underlines what everyone can see. According to Sofascore, Diaz has already missed six big chances in the Bundesliga this season. After four league matchdays, his expected-goals figure stood at 3.1. His return: zero since Stuttgart.

The comparison inside his own dressing room is unforgiving. Kane has three Bundesliga goals from an xG of 2.17. Olise, in electric form, has four from an xG of 2.65. Across all competitions, Olise is already on eight goals and three assists. Saibari, who replaced Diaz in the 63rd minute against Union, has one goal and three assists in just 178 Bundesliga minutes.

The team around him is taking its chances. Diaz, for now, is not.

This is not a completely new problem. During the World Cup, where he still helped Colombia reach the last 16, his finishing deserted him at times. Back in Munich, that uncertainty in front of goal only grew. Against Union, he barely even got on the end of chances.

Yet nobody at Bayern is talking about a crisis.

“Some would be glad if they had a dip like his,” said sporting board member Max Eberl on Friday, before spelling out the club’s view. In South America, he argued, the current international games are “not absolutely necessary” for Diaz. After a draining season with 51 Bayern appearances – 26 goals, 23 assists – plus 16 more for Colombia (7 goals, 3 assists), it was time to stop the clock.

Special leave and a reset

So Diaz will not join Colombia in this international window. National coach Nestor Lorenzo, in consultation with the player, has left him out. Bayern call it rest. A reset, physically and mentally.

“He has just had a lot of games. So in that respect it is nice,” Eberl said. Diaz 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.”

His next chance in a Bayern shirt will not come until 10 October at FC Augsburg. Until then, silence. No speeches. No goals. Just work.

Curiously, Diaz himself had hinted he might need help long before this drought took hold. In that same Sky/RTL interview, he openly admitted he would have welcomed competition for his position.

“Of course I always want to play,” he said. “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 exactly that type of back-up. Then, just before the transfer deadline, they loaned Arijon Ibrahimovic to FC Augsburg. The 20-year-old was reportedly surprised. The depth chart on the left wing suddenly looked thinner.

Is the back-up already here?

So will Bayern move again in winter? Eberl’s response on Friday came in the form of a counter-question: “Where did Isi score his goal from today?”

The answer was obvious. Saibari had struck from the left side of the box, the very corridor Diaz usually patrols. The Moroccan is not a classic winger – he lacks the raw pace – but his intelligence, vision and close control allow him to slot into almost any attacking role. Gnabry can also cover on the left.

On paper, Diaz is not without competition. On the pitch, though, his starting place is not under serious threat yet. Vincent Kompany is expected to keep rotating his stars, especially with several midweek rounds stacked up after the international break. Minutes will be shared. Diaz will get his chances.

He has been here before, in a way. In December 2025, suspended in the Champions League and banned in the Bundesliga after a fifth yellow card, Diaz was sent away for a short break by Kompany.

“I think it is simply sensible now that he is away for a few days and then comes back mentally and physically at one hundred per cent,” the coach said back then.

Diaz returned refreshed and produced an outstanding second half of the season.

Now, the calendar reads early autumn, not midwinter. The stakes are different, the timing earlier. The question is the same.

Can Luis Diaz turn another enforced pause into the spark that reignites his season – or will this be the first time the reset button does not work?