Diogo Dalot has used his second UTD Podcast stint to reflect on how he has lived up to his promise from his original episode on the popular show, back in 2020.
At that time, before the world was hit by Covid, the defender told co-hosts Sam Homewood and David May that he would not stop fighting to earn a place in the Manchester United first team.
A loan move to AC Milan followed, and he even played against the Reds in the Europa League, but the right-back refused to accept the easy option of leaving Old Trafford.
Instead, the Portugal international has become a key member of Erik ten Hag’s squad and shown an adaptability to play on either side of the back four.
With Helen Evans joining Homewood and May for this latest episode, due to be released at 17:00 GMT on Monday, the chat allowed Dalot to remember how he was feeling when being a guest on the podcast previously.
With much to play for at United and Portugal qualifying for the European Championship finals with a 100 per recent record, there is likely to be renewed drive from the 24-year-old, who became a father for the first time last week.
“I remember I was in a phase of [being] with injuries, with struggling to get minutes and to play and now, looking back to that and seeing the position that I am today, that’s what makes me proud,” Dalot said.
“It’s not the way that I might be playing or what people might say about me, it’s just myself, inside of me. I look back and I see, okay, I didn’t give up. And I remember that I told you that I was going to fight for my position and I was going to fight for that.
”And, sometimes, it’s just the way football is. The easiest way sometimes is to go away to, I don’t like to say give up because football has different paths and different ways. Sometimes, you’re just knocking on a door that’s not going to open. You have to go to another one.
But I always felt that I could do something here,” he insisted. “I could achieve something here, which I feel that I still can do even more. But that feeling at that moment to know that, okay, I have to. I cannot leave here without feeling that I can prove that I can play here for a while, or I can be a starter or whatever.
”And I’m happy to look back and see that progress and I fought for that. I mean I like to think that what this club brings you and you can see, not just me – other players – [have a] big mentality. When things are not going well and you just keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting. It’s just a matter of time for you to get the rewards and this club has this special thing of when it’s good, it makes you feel really, really special and it has the opposite [effect].
“When things go wrong, it obviously makes you feel really bad. So you have to find that balance of always trying to be the best version.”
