| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Diego Fernando Abreu Firenze [1] | ||
| Date of birth | 27 August 2003 | ||
| Place of birth | Mexico City, Mexico [1] | ||
| Height | 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) [1] | ||
| Position(s) | Forward | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Defensor Sporting | ||
| Number | 19 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Rincón del Carrasco | |||
| Carrasco Polo | |||
| Defensor Sporting | |||
| 2023 | → Botafogo (youth loan) | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2024– | Defensor Sporting | 23 | (4) |
| 2024 | → Toluca (loan) | 0 | (0) |
| International career | |||
| 2019 | Mexico U17 | 3 | (4) |
| 2020 | Mexico U18 | 1 | (0) |
| 2021 | Mexico U20 | 2 | (1) |
| 2021– | Uruguay U20 | 3 | (2) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 1 October 2025 | |||
Diego Fernando Abreu Firenze (born 27 August 2003) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Defensor Sporting. Born in Mexico, he is currently a youth international for Uruguay.
Abreu was born in Mexico City, Mexico, to former Uruguayan international footballer Sebastián Abreu and Paola Firenze. [2] He has one older sister, Valentina, and two younger brothers, Facundo and Franco. As a child, he lived in Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Greece, Uruguay, and Brazil, following his father's footballing career as he moved to different clubs. [3] Following his father's move to Nacional, Diego's family decided he would stay in Uruguay from 2014 onwards, though he visited his father occasionally as he continued his career abroad. [3] Abreu holds a Mexican passport via jus soli, along with a Uruguayan passport and an Italian passport, as his mother is of Italian descent. [4]
Abreu first started playing football at the request of his father, though he stated in an interview with ESPN Deportes that he "only went [in order] to drink Gatorade at halftime". [3] While living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he played futsal, before returning to Uruguay to play organized football at the youth level. [3] He initially played for Rincón del Carrasco in the Canelones Department of Uruguay, but after not being selected to play very often, he moved to Carrasco Polo in Montevideo. [3]
He joined Defensor Sporting in his last year of baby fútbol and recalled in another interview with ESPN Deportes that his first major involvement with the club was in a youth tournament in Brazil, where he missed a penalty against Internacional; chipping a Panenka shot that did not even reach the goal. [3] [5] He continued to progress through the academy and made his unofficial debut in a 2–1 friendly loss against Argentinian opposition Vélez Sarsfield on 14 January 2023. [6] A few days later, on 17 January, he scored his first goal for the club, the consolation in another 2–1 loss, this time to Montevideo Wanderers of Uruguay. [2]
On 31 March 2023, it was announced that Abreu would join Brazilian side Botafogo, where his father had also played, on a season-long loan deal. [7] On signing, he recalled that he had watched Botafogo games live as a child, during his father's spell with the club. [7]
Eligible to represent Italy, Mexico, and Uruguay, Abreu represented Mexico from under-17 to under-20 level. [1] [2] In February 2021, he stated that he had not yet decided who he wanted to play for, also expressing his desire to represent Uruguay at international level. [8] He received his first call-up to the Uruguay under-20 side for a training camp in September of the same year, before featuring for Mexico's under-20s in two friendlies against France and England in October, scoring against the former. [1] [9]
In December 2021, he was called up to the Uruguay under-20 side again by coach Gustavo Ferreyra and scored in a friendly against Chile in a 1–1 friendly draw. [8] He played in a second friendly game against Colombia but suffered a cruciate ligament injury in the game, which required surgery in February 2022, before he returned in September of the same year. [10] In December 2022, he scored another goal against Chile at under-20 level in a 2–0 win. [10]