Luis Diaz's Goal Drought Continues at Bayern Munich

The music was still thumping through the walls when Harry Kane finally stepped out into the Munich night, gingerbread heart in hand, the iced “100” on the front already starting to crack. Inside, Bayern’s dressing room had been a blur of speeches, jokes and the kind of easy laughter that follows a 7-0 demolition.

“The coach had us give a few speeches in the dressing room,” Kane said just after midnight on Friday, the last Bayern player to leave after the rout of Union Berlin. He reeled off the reasons to smile: “Michael scored his first hat-trick for us, Isi scored his first goal for Bayern Munich, I got my 100th goal, Serge Gnabry is back after his injury.” When asked whose speech was shortest, Kane grinned. Michael Olise’s, of course.

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

Luis Diaz walked out of the Allianz Arena without a word. No celebration, no visible frustration, just a quiet exit that underlined the contrast of his current reality. On a night full of milestones and comebacks, he was the outlier. The striker who cannot buy a break.

A dry spell that will not end

You have to go back to the opening day of the Bundesliga season for Diaz’s last goal for Bayern. He scored the fifth in a 5-1 win over VfB Stuttgart. Since then, five games. No goals. No assists. No relief.

It is not just the numbers. The chances have been there. Against Schalke, against Osnabrück in the cup, against Bodö/Glimt in the Champions League – big openings, wasted. Last weekend in Elversberg, he drew the ire of Josip Stanisic when, after a perfect cutback from Olise, he declined the obvious shot and instead seemed to chase a highlight-reel moment. A few feints, a backheel, no end product.

Against Union, his most dangerous contribution ended with the linesman’s flag. Diaz finished off what had been Bayern’s slickest move of the game to that point, only to see the goal ruled out for offside. Another night, another blank.

That also meant something else: he broke his own promise. In an interview with Sky/RTL before the game, Diaz had been defiant. “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 cut both ways

The data underline the story. According to Sofascore, Diaz has already missed six big chances in the Bundesliga this season. After the first four league matchdays, his expected-goals tally sat at 3.1. The return: that single goal on the opening weekend.

Kane, by comparison, has three league goals from an xG of 2.17. Olise is outperforming his numbers even more dramatically: four Bundesliga goals from an xG of 2.65, eight goals and three assists in all competitions already. Ismael Saibari, who replaced Diaz in the 63rd minute against Union and promptly scored his first Bayern goal, has one goal and three assists in just 178 Bundesliga minutes.

For Diaz, the picture is harsher. The 29-year-old is still getting into positions, but the conviction that once defined him has drained away. During the World Cup with Colombia, when he still reached the last 16, his chance conversion had already started to wobble. The problem followed him back to Munich and has only grown louder since.

Yet his overall workload tells another story. Last season he played 51 times for Bayern, scoring 26 goals and laying on 23 assists. On top of that came 16 games for Colombia, with seven goals and three assists. It was a relentless schedule.

Rest instead of a recall

That is why his October looks different. Diaz will not be on international duty. Colombia head coach Nestor Lorenzo, in agreement with the player, has decided to leave him out of the squad for the upcoming fixtures. Instead of a transatlantic flight and high-stakes qualifiers, he will get something far more valuable right now: a break.

“Some would be glad if they had a dip like his,” Bayern’s board member for sport Max Eberl said on Friday, before spelling out the reasoning. In South America, these 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 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,” Eberl added.

It is not the first time Bayern have hit the reset button with him. In December 2025, suspended in the Champions League after a red card and banned in the Bundesliga due to a fifth yellow, Diaz was sent away for a few days by Vincent 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.

He did come back refreshed and powered through an excellent second half of the season. Bayern will hope the pattern repeats – only much earlier this time.

A warning he saw coming

What makes this dip even more striking is that Diaz seemed to sense the risk. In his Sky/RTL interview, he openly admitted he would have welcomed 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’s original plan matched that logic. The club had intended to bring in a genuine back-up for the left wing and had said as much. Instead, shortly before the transfer deadline, they loaned Arijon Ibrahimovic to FC Augsburg, a move that surprised the 20-year-old as well.

So is Diaz’s flank under-staffed? Eberl pushed back with a pointed counter-question on Friday: “Where did Isi score his goal from today?” The answer was obvious. Saibari had drifted into the left side of the penalty area to finish.

The Moroccan is not a classic winger – he lacks the raw pace – but his intelligence, vision and technique allow him to operate across the front line. Gnabry can also step into Diaz’s role on the left. On paper, the position is not as exposed as it looks.

No lost status – yet

For now, Diaz’s place is not under immediate threat. Kompany has been rotating heavily and is expected to keep doing so once the international break ends, with several midweek rounds looming. Stars will share minutes. Opportunities will come.

What Diaz no longer has is the protection of fatigue as an excuse. By the time Bayern travel to Augsburg on 10 October, he will have had his holiday, his reset, his tailored programme. The narrative will shift from “overplayed” to “refreshed.”

The dressing room will move on quickly. Records will keep falling, speeches will keep coming, new heroes will emerge. On Friday night, Kane, Olise, Saibari and the returning Gnabry had every reason to talk. Diaz chose not to.

Soon enough, he will have to answer in the only way that really counts for a forward at Bayern: with the next chance, in front of goal, when there is nowhere left to hide.