Ben Brereton Diaz is a reputation many soccer followers will pay attention to after his profitable stint with Blackburn Rovers and ineffective time with Premier League strugglers Southampton.
The ahead is presently on mortgage from the Saints to Championship aspect Sheffield United, as he rejoined the second-placed aspect within the January window to assist their promotion push to the Premier League. The 25-year-old, who additionally had spells with Villarreal and Forest, has been a good addition for Chris Wilder's Blades – scoring two and helping as soon as in seven appearances up to now.
And the story behind Brereton Diaz's identify change again in 2021 is much more fascinating, previous to Method One star Lewis Hamilton discussing happening an analogous path. The British driver will take the wheel of a Ferrari automotive for the primary time this week as a part of F1 testing for the upcoming 2025 season, going down from Wednesday till Friday in Bahrain – and Hamilton beforehand spoke about legally altering his identify.
Talking in 2022, Hamilton revealed that he could be utilizing his mum's surname – Larbalestier – to honour her and plans to compete with each names sooner or later. The 40-year-old mentioned: "I'm actually happy with my household's identify: Hamilton. Really, none of you would possibly know that my mum's [sur]identify is Larbalestier. And I'm nearly to place that in my identify."
Hamilton added: "As a result of I don't actually absolutely perceive the entire thought of why, when folks get married, the lady loses her identify. I really need her identify to proceed on with the Hamilton identify."
So whereas Hamilton was clear concerning the choice to vary his identify to honour his household, Brereton Diaz really modified his to stay with Spanish custom.
In 2021, online game lovers enjoying the newest Soccer Supervisor recreation observed that the footballer was half Chilean and commenced a marketing campaign to get him to play for the worldwide staff. Following this revelation, Brereton Diaz was known as up by then-manager Martin Lasarte for Chile, as he was eligible for a call-up by way of his mom's aspect.
Simply earlier than his debut in 2021, the place he performed a 1-1 draw out with Argentina within the Copa America, the soccer star determined to make use of each his mom and father's surnames to characterize his nation, as is Spanish custom. On the time, Brereton Diaz was enjoying for Blackburn within the Championship, and he was happy to characterize his household on the largest stage with each surnames.
The now-25-year-old mentioned on the time: "It’s nice and it’s an actual privilege, notably for my mum’s aspect of the household. I’ve identified for fairly some time that Chile have been me, however I simply stored my head down and needed to do effectively for Blackburn Rovers.
"Then only in the near past they’ve been in contact with me and my household, to tell us, and we’ve made the choice that we wish to do it and provides it my greatest shot. It’s an actual honour, Chile are an ideal staff to be part of and my mum and my granddad, and all of the household, are very proud.
"It’s actually particular for them. They have been all in tears once they came upon. It’s actually thrilling they usually’re actually happy with me and I can’t wait to play. I performed for England after I was youthful and it was an ideal honour as effectively, however for me this was a chance I couldn’t flip down and it’s a large honour to play for the opposite aspect of my household.
"I’ve been actually grateful for all of the messages of assist I’ve had from the Chilean followers up to now. I do know that they love their soccer and I can’t wait to recover from there and expertise it first hand and hopefully I can do the nation proud."
Former Forest team-mate Joe Lolley noticed the sudden identify change throughout the Argentina vs Chile recreation on the time, and shared an image of Ben on TV on his Instagram story with the caption "Brereton Diaz" alongside three laughing face emojis.
Since then, Brereton Diaz has made 35 whole appearances for Chile and scored seven objectives, together with in a 2-1 loss to Lionel Messi's Argentina throughout the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
He’ll play out the remainder of the 2024/25 season with Sheffield United earlier than returning to Southampton, who’re on target to drop again into the Championship.
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