'I'm just creating memories' - Diego Kochen on his love of the novel 'The Giver', learning from FC Barcelona's stars and finding his way with the USMNT

The Giver's plot centers around knowledge and learning. So, too, did Kochen's summer. In the book, the main character, Jonas, is entrusted with inheriting society's memories from a man known as 'The Giver'. It's an honor, but also a responsibility. It also leads to philosophical questions about what it means to be human.

Kochen's summer wasn't that deep, but it was all about the pursuit of knowledge.

The goalkeeper remembers getting the World Cup call. It was, as he puts it, "one of the best days of my life". The USMNT didn't need him for the World Cup, but they needed him in camp. He was one of two goalkeepers called in to help the team train leading up to the tournament.

"It was just knowing that I was going to be able to be part of the journey and learn from the best players in the country," Kochen says. "The staff we have, they're unbelievable. It was just knowing that I was going to be able to have an entire summer dedicated to learning from the best players in the country. I was so thankful for the opportunity."

Over the last few weeks, the learning has continued. Kochen is back with the USMNT for what is technically his third camp, having previously joined the group in the fall of 2024, too. In the first of this window, which came against Peru, he made his first appearance. Then, against Mexico, he became the youngest goalkeeper to start for the USMNT against El Tri. He didn't look out of place.

During a first half that had sustained spells of Mexico domination, Kochen never blinked. He was calm when playing out of the back and made the one big save needed. In the end, it finished as a blowout, a 3-0 USMNT win, but Kochen did his part as he played all 90 in the biggest game of his career so far.

It's not even just about this camp," he says, "but every time you step on that field, age just goes away. You don't think about age. You don't think about you being younger than anybody else, but it is true that you know I am the youngest goalkeeper here and I do have so much to learn from the guys I'm with, from the coaches, from the people who have been here a while, from the captain, from everybody.

"I guess, I like to see it this way, I'm in a very nice position. The fact that I get that? It's helpful too."

Kochen is no stranger to learning from the best, though. He's been doing that since he was 13 years old.

When Kochen goes through his memories at Barcelona, he's all smiles. One, though, stands out.

"The parade with the Barca first team," he says. "It was insane to see the whole city outside."

Kochen has been a part of Barcelona since 2019 and, as a result, Barcelona has become a part of him. After growing up in Florida, he blossomed in La Masia, putting himself on the USMNT radar simply due to his association with the club. And, over the last few years, he's risen through the ranks with the Blaugrana, earning a spot with the first team as a backup goalkeeper.

Yet he never had the chance to play a competitive game for the senior team. It's a fact that illustrates just what life is like coming up at one of the world's biggest clubs.

"It's so competitive even from an early age," he says. "You have to fight for one position that early and to learn the values of competition early. That was the biggest shocker, I'd say, out of everything.

"Then when you start climbing up the ranks and start going, seeing the individual quality of the players like Lamine, for example, or Raphinha or all these players, yeah, that's what shocks you again. That never gets old. Just to be surrounded by personalities like that, it's absolutely incredible. There's no better learning environment. I try to take things from everybody. You can learn from absolutely everybody."

Kochen studies the greats. He backed up Wojciech Szczesny, a player with incredible amounts of experience for club and country. Marc-Andre ter Stegen is, in many ways, his idol, especially after Kochen got to watch the German star up close for so long. Every modern goalkeeper idolizes another German, Manuel Neuer, to learn how to play with the ball at their feet. David de Gea, meanwhile, is the measuring stick for save-making, Kochen says. The ex-Spain goalkeeper was "an absolute beast", but so was Tim Howard, whose 2014 World Cup performance against Belgium helped ignite Kochen's love of goalkeeping.

There are others, too, of course. Lining up against Lewandowski, Raphinha and Yamal inspires a certain level of confidence in a goalkeeper, as they know they won't face many better ball-strikers elsewhere. Learning from Mauricio Pochettino and his staff, too, has lifted Kochen into a place where he can thrive against Mexico.

"I'm happy with his performance," Pochettino said, "but very happy between the four goalkeepers. They have a very good relationship and create a very good mood, but it's a big credit to the goalkeeper coach Toni [Jimenez] and Jack [Robinson]. They are managing so well."

Still, despite all of the learning experiences in training, every goalkeeper needs games, which is why Kochen left Barcelona this summer. He left the USMNT's World Cup camp early, too, to facilitate the move to Lyngby, where he is now being challenged on and off the field.

Kochen raves about the pastries. They're wonderful, he says. They might just be his favorite part of his new life with Lyngby.

That life is a massive change. After splitting his youth between Miami and Barcelona, he's now playing somewhere a little bit colder. He's also significantly more alone. Off the field, Kochen prioritizes family time, but his family has remained in Barcelona.

There have been small comforts, though. His parents came to help him move into his new place, which is about 15 minutes from Copenhagen. They've also been over to visit since. So, too, have friends. The flight is only thee hours, after all.

Even when they aren't there, Kochen is exploring his new city, one unlike any he's lived in so far.

"I'm all up in there," he says with a laugh. "I've gotten used to the culture. I'm very grateful to have lived first in Miami, then Barcelona, now Copenhagen. It's three absolutely beautiful cities, and it's been a wonderful transition.

"The culture and the country are absolutely beautiful. The people are very polite, very nice, very welcoming, and the pastries? The pastries are all the best. It's been nice to go experience this step abroad."

That step is, ultimately, designed to help him grow on the field, though. Pastries are nice, but starting minutes are better. Since arriving at Lyngby, a newly promoted club in the Danish first division, Kochen has started nine games. The club is expected to fight against relegation this season. Kochen will be facing a lot of shots, at least.

It'll be good for his development and, while Lyngby have a purchase option at the end of his loan, Barcelona do retain a percentage of a future sale. It's in everyone's best interest, then, to see this all work out and see Kochen blossom into a starting-caliber goalkeeper.

"I obviously have my long-term goals," Kochen says. "I'm on loan right now with Lyngby, so one of my goals is to compete as much as possible and give everything I have for that club. At the same time, I come from Barcelona, so to be able to go back? It'd be any kid's dream to go back to such a big club and have the opportunity there. That's another one of my goals.

"But I'm more of like an experience-by-experience guy. Right now, I'm here at camp with the national team, so, for right now, my goal is just to give it my all and give it my all for the nation."

Many of Kochen's backers see him as the prototypical modern goalkeeper. He's smooth with his feet, but able to make a save, too. It's the latter that will help define the next step. While so much of the current game is focused on how a goalkeeper can pass, it's often forgotten that they have a primary job that's more important.

"We need to be very quick, and our advantage is to be very clever," Jimenez told GOAL in 2025. "The keeper needs to be clever, and we say many times that a keeper needs to play well with his feet, but they need to make saves first. Remember that, please!"

Kochen has taken that lesson on board. The word he often goes back to is "balance".

"That's the ultimate goal for all of us," he says. "That's definitely what I'm striving towards: to be able to stop everything I can and win games."

It's said that goalkeepers need to have short memories. When it comes to the position, fans tend to, at least. In the national team setting, you're only as good as your last game. It's a lot of pressure for a 20-year-old goalkeeper who, so far, has just nine senior games on the club level to go with two senior games for his country.

Kochen, though, is used to pressure. He grew up in La Masia, after all.

"My only focus is to just give my all to the team, give all for the nation, for the federation, for U.S. Soccer," he says. "So that's how I handle the expectations."

Kochen's most recent read is The Shining. It's dark, he says. Seeing the movie inspired him to read the book next, and it didn't take long for him to realize how different the two were. Still, he's invested.

"It's weird, but it's so good," he says. "I can't put it down. It might even be better than the movie. I'm just into the stories that get you hooked."

Maybe Kochen will end up liking it as much as he did The Giver. That's a question for another day. What matters most is if it sticks with him in the way that book did.

There's a point in that story where memories are discussed. “Why do you and I have to hold these memories?" Jonas asks.

The Giver replies: "It gives us wisdom.”

And so Kochen's pursuit of more continues: more wisdom, more lessons, more memories and, ultimately, more stories that change him for the better.