‘You’re going to have emotions, but now what?’ - Diego Luna on World Cup exclusion, hard truths and turning disappointment into motivation

Even now, a week after the USMNT's World Cup exit, Luna's omission from the squad remains one of the biggest talking points. Throughout the year leading up to the World Cup, the midfielder emerged as American soccer's breakout star. The image of him with a broken nose became iconic, the representation of the gritty style of play Luna could offer to the USMNT and, for many, what the national team should be. By the end of 2025, Luna amassed 17 caps, more than anyone else in the USMNT pool. His last cap came in the final game of the calendar year, which saw him score in a 5-1 win over Uruguay. In the months after, he was the face of multiple campaigns leading up to the World Cup, which made his absence even more jarring.

"The noise is crazy," he says. "You get the attention and, when things are good, they're great! When things are bad, they can be very, very bad. For me, it's understanding the balance and keeping a steady mindset and not letting things get to your head. That's the biggest thing: having a balanced mindset when things are good and when things are bad. They're not going to be good forever, and they're not going to be bad forever, either.

"You saw this past year, 2025 was all Diego Luna," he adds. "The media, the things they put out, pictures, all this stuff. As a 21-year-old, it was like, 'Wow, this is crazy!' I think it's all a learning experience, man."

So, too, was the decision that changed his life. Luna had a delayed start to the MLS season due to injury, causing him to miss March camp. He was still widely expected to be involved for this summer's World Cup, though. But he wasn't. When the USMNT squad was leaked days before its official unveiling, the big story was Luna's absence.

Afterwards, USMNT boss Mauricio Pochettino was asked about his decisions. He said he wouldn't dive into the reasons why players were left out of respect for the players that were in. Pochettino also opted not to contact players that missed the squad to both avoid favoritism and give players the chance to come to terms with his decision on their own before conversation down the line.

Luna would have that conversation. While he can assume some of the reasons he missed out, there are still parts of this he'd like to talk out.

"The decision of why I was left off the roster, that's up to the coaching staff or the federation," he says. "I haven't had a word spoken to me about anything since my last friendlies with the national team against Uruguay. I haven't heard from the staff or anything. For me, it is what it is, and they have their thing. They were busy doing what they needed to do for the federation, and now it's about me doing what I need to do.

"When it's time to reach out and let me know what happened and why the decision was the way it was, I'm open, and I'm all ears. It's just about getting back to work."

Before getting back to work, though, Luna had to come to terms with it all. It helped, in a way, that he'd felt this low before.

This wasn't Luna's first soccer heartbreak. It was his biggest, yes, but far from his first. He has been left off rosters before. He knows how this all works.

As a youth player, he was rejected by the San Jose Earthquakes, who didn't see a future for the small, broad-shouldered player from nearby Sunnyvale. In 2024, amid a breakout season that saw him earn an MLS All-Star nod and the MLS Young Player of the Year award, he was left off the U.S. Olympic squad. One of the defining factors of Luna's story is that he hasn't always been everyone's cup of tea, and that fact has helped make him who he is now.

"To be realistic, it's been my whole life," he says. "There have been doubters. There have been people who hate me, people who don't agree with me, people who don't like the way I am. That's been my whole life, and look where I've gotten this far by working on myself and betting on myself.

"I think that's just part of this career: upsetting moments, and of course I'm upset. Of course, I'm frustrated with this, but those are decisions that are made, and you cannot let those decisions define you, especially at this level."

With that mindset, Luna tried his best not to let his World Cup exclusion define his summer. How, then, could he turn this curse into a blessing? Family, it turns out.

El Paso was where Luna first became a professional. After leaving the Earthquakes academy, he spent time at Barcelona’s Arizona residency before joining El Paso Locomotive. A little over a year later, Real Salt Lake came calling, and with everything that followed, he never really had the chance to return to the Texas city that had given him his start.

During his World Cup break, he finally went back.

"It was cool to connect with people that made me who I was when I was a young teenager," he says. "It was cool to go out and have people recognize me in restaurants and have people be fans and just embrace me. It was cool to go back to where it all started."

Even better, though, was the time with family. In soccer, it isn't often available with both club and national team commitments. There's always another training session, another game or another camp. For the first time in a while, Luna didn't have that this summer, so he very quickly pivoted in an attempt to make the most of it.

"I was able to spend time with my son and spend time with people I love, which is amazing, but, at the end of the day, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a World Cup in your home country. That was definitely mentally challenging, but it's also about understanding that life moves on," Luna says. "You can either dwell on it and let it ruin the time you have with your family, or you can understand and push past it, enjoy the present, enjoy the time with family, and look at it from a side of, 'Okay, that's what it is'.

"It was about using this time as something beneficial for you, which is spending time with loved ones, having early mornings with my family, which is rare. It was definitely difficult, but it was using this summer to understand what it's like when soccer isn't the main focus for a little bit."

Fatherhood helped him refocus. So, too, did his friends. Luna's first public words about his World Cup exclusion came with popular YouTubers Chicos Toxicos, who had no issue with poking fun at Luna's situation. "So I heard you're free this summer," one joke went. It was followed swiftly by jokes about commercials, phone calls and why playing for Mexico might have worked out better.

The jokes helped Luna move past things. Sometimes, the best medicine is laughter.

"You get to spend time with friends, you get to hang out with people and, I know they don't mean it, but it is fun and games," he says. "Sometimes, you get memories that you build on from situations that don't go right. That's the way I take it. You look at things in the right light. There's nothing you can do to change it, so why not embrace it and try to laugh about it? Then, continue to work to make sure it doesn't happen again."

One of the wilder parts about missing a World Cup is that, shortly after, life goes right back to where it was. He's still one of the faces of MLS, as he recently featured in the league's "We'll take it from here" commerical. Despite all that's happened, Luna still represents a certain feeling to people, perhaps even more so than before.

Now, finally, Luna is gearing back up for a return to play with RSL after what he calls "a little mini-preseason". He's said his piece about this summer but, by finally getting back on the field, he can put everything he's said into practice. Only then can he truly put this all behind him.

"I want to play," he says. "It was a long break, and I think that was by far the most difficult part of all of this. We didn't have training. It was just me and myself getting that urge to go out there and have it be go-time to just do this. At the end of the day, the outside world can say what they want, the media, everything, but now it's about me showcasing what I can do, performing at a high level, and doing it every time so I can get a chance to wear that crest again.

"It's all about the mindset. At the end of the day, it's using this as fuel. Which way is this going to take you? For me, yeah, it hurt. It was a big miss, but now it's about focusing on this next part of the season and doing everything I can to continue to better myself and give me that next opportunity to wear the crest."

When that happens, the player that puts on that USMNT shirt will be a different Luna. It'll be one that's been humbled by the outside world but it'll also be one that's stronger, both mentally and physically. And it'll be one that's motivated even more so than before.

Luna's life was always going to change this summer. It may not have changed in the way he wanted, but it has changed. He has, too.

"I don't want to dive too deep," he concludes, "because I don't want all of this out there, but sometimes it's not good enough from me because of certain situations outside of soccer. It's about understanding that that's part of being a good pro: balancing outside life and inside life. That's one thing I've learned lately.

"When things aren't good outside of soccer, you have to find a way to switch it off. When you're on the field, you have to feel free. You have to find a way to switch it off and, when you're off, that's when you can handle problems. It seems chaotic, but you just go one by one, next problem down. When it's time to step on the field, your mind has to go blank, and you have to enjoy yourself and what you do."

That separation is something Luna is still learning to create. He cannot control when life becomes difficult, but he is beginning to understand that he cannot allow those challenges to follow him onto the field.

"That's something I'm still working on," he says. "It's about mastering that because life is going to be a rollercoaster. Mastering that is where you get to peak performance and the peak of your career. Wherever that takes me, I'm excited for the future."