Diego Kochen didn't just watch David De Gea highlights as a kid — he studied them on an iPad, straight-faced, and decided that's exactly who he wanted to be. The 20-year-old USMNT goalkeeper said it himself: "The reactions, the saves, the flying. That's what absolutely made me fall in love with the position."
That's a hell of an origin story for someone who just kept a clean sheet in 45 minutes on his senior international debut, then started a 3-0 win over Mexico four days later.
Two Red Devils, one career path
Kochen's formative goalkeeping influences share a thread: both Tim Howard and David De Gea wore the Manchester United shirt. Howard's 2014 World Cup performance — 16 saves against Belgium, still one of the great individual displays in tournament history — is what hooked the Miami-born keeper first. His godmother handed him Howard's autobiography, and something clicked.
"In the book he describes a lot his mentality, the way he sees soccer in the eyes of a goalkeeper," Kochen explained in a November 2025 interview with Men in Blazers. "It changed my whole opinion about the position."
Then came De Gea. Not the press conferences, not the personality — just the saves. The calm after the miracle stop. "Not cocky, he wouldn't celebrate as if he'd scored a goal. Calm and collected. Another day at the office." For a teenager trying to figure out what kind of goalkeeper he wanted to be, that image stuck.
From La Masia to Denmark, now Pochettino's radar
Kochen moved to Spain at 12, joined Barcelona's La Masia academy at 13, and has spent recent seasons logging minutes for Barcelona Atlètic in Spain's third and fourth divisions. Nearly 40 appearances for the B side before his first real test: a loan to Lyngby, freshly promoted to Denmark's Superliga this season.
It hasn't been comfortable. Lyngby have won just one of their first nine league games, and Kochen has conceded 16 goals while playing every minute. That's the reality of life at a newly promoted side — you're going to take punishment. But Pochettino clearly saw enough through the noise to hand him two caps in quick succession.
- USMNT debut: vs. Peru (Sep. 26), came on at halftime in a 4-1 win, kept a clean sheet
- Second cap: vs. Mexico (Oct.), started and completed a 3-0 victory in Phoenix
Born in Florida to a Peruvian mother and Venezuelan father, Kochen holds Spanish citizenship, which technically gives him four international options. He's shown no interest in exploring them. Every youth appearance — U16 through U23 — has been in a USMNT shirt, and nothing about his trajectory suggests that's changing.
Pochettino is building something at a program that needs a long-term answer in goal. Two starts, two clean sheets, childhood heroes who preached calm over chaos. The audition is going well.
