Manchester United’s player of the season: Diogo Dalot – via Ronaldo, Maldini and Mourinho

It has not gone unnoticed that Diogo Dalot is now weighing his food at Carrington, Manchester United’s training ground.

The Portuguese right-back isn’t bothered that some of his team-mates might consider it, in his words, a bit “strange”. Being fit, with nutrition being a big part of it, is something the 25-year-old has paid close attention to since his loan spell at AC Milan in 2020-21.

While living in Italy amid the Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time, he would speak to legendary former Milan and Italy defender Paolo Maldini, then the club’s technical director, about football – and insisted to address him in Italian while he learned the language.

He began to pay more attention to how he ate, slept and stayed in shape. Maldini’s advice included being more patient on and off the pitch and more vocal during matches. Milan were impressed by the young defender they had loaned from Old Trafford and gave him regular minutes, he played in 21 of 38 Serie A matches. They even inquired about signing him back for this season, as did and Borussia Dortmund, who reached the Champions League final this weekend. The year before, Juventus and Atletico Madrid did the same.

Cristiano Ronaldo was also a big figure, with Dalot considering the former United star as the most influential person in his career. Ronaldo has been his idol for years, and since they were Portugal team-mates at the previous Euros in 2021, he has considered him a friend – something Dalot finds surreal. The defender believes that every conversation with the man he considers Portugal’s greatest ambassador is an education, a chance to draw on his knowledge, talent and wisdom.

Another major influence was their compatriot Jose Mourinho, who first brought a teenage Dalot to United from Porto in the summer of 2018, with the view that he would be the next Gary Neville and make his right-back position for a decade. Mourinho, Dalot believes, can make you feel like the best or worst player in the world if he wants to.

And it was all paid for.

Dalot is The AthleticManchester United’s player of the season for 2023-24, who continued to improve despite being in a squad that fell well short of expectations.

No outfielder at the club saw more action than Dalot, who logged 4,364 minutes in 50 appearances across four competitions. The only one of United’s nine senior defenders not to miss a sizeable chunk of the season through injury, he missed just two games.

One of those was the unfortunate 2-0 defeat at West Ham in December due to a suspension after being sent off the previous weekend against Liverpool at Anfield. The other was the season opener against Wolves, his place on the bench indicating he was not in manager Erik ten Hag’s best XI then, with Aaron Wan-Bissaka preferred at right-back.

Dalot didn’t start the following week against Tottenham – hence the aforementioned transfer interest, as the summer window was still open – but once he replaced Wan-Bissaka after 66 minutes that day, he kept his place, playing 90 minutes of each Premier League. game the rest of the way, except for the trip to West Ham.

Dalot and compatriot Bruno Fernandes with the FA Cup (Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images)

The Ten Hag has been happy to use him since August at either right-back or left-back, where he played six of the last seven games of the season, including the FA Cup final victory over league champions and neighbors City.

Changing positions does not come by itself. Dalot says his perception changes with the spaces and body shape. “When I go from right to left, after playing 10 games in a row on the right, I have to prepare for training beforehand,” he explains. “You approach your players in a different way from the left, as are your legs, for example.”

Former United permanent manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes Dalot has improved since he was sacked in November 2021 and has become a better defender. Anyone who saw him flayed by Villarreal’s Arnaut Danjuma that season would agree – although he was one of United’s best players in that dramatic Champions League last 16 away win against Paris Saint-Germain in March 2019.

In a dressing room where the mood has been on the floor at times this season, Dalot is the DJ – sociable and connected with everyone on the team. His excellent English means he gets along with the British, but is also integral to Portuguese and Spanish speakers alike. His best friends in the group are Casemiro, Antony, Lisandro Martinez and Bruno Fernandes, with whom he argues about the Sporting Lisbon-Porto rivalry at home.

“He is a very mature player for his age. It’s easy to forget how young he still is,” said a United source, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect relationships. The Athletic. “He is very professional and very active tactically. He has played well inside as an extra midfielder at times this year. His crossing is mixed, but as you saw against Aston Villa in February, you can see how good he is can be.

“And you can see how good some of his defense can be. He’s been inconsistent with certain things: some of his defending at the back post, some of his positioning, but there’s a sense that it’s slowly getting better and better.

“He’s had a good run of games this season and he has to be in the conversation for player of the year given the number of appearances and his level of performance.”

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Others at Carrington noted as his speed, strength and stamina improved, he developed into a multi-faceted asset.

Former United full-back Patrice Evra says: “For me, Diogo Dalot is a consistent player with regular big performances. What I like the most when I see him play is the energy he puts on the pitch, he always wants to get on the pitch and never gives up, and that’s why, in my opinion, he’s been United’s most consistent player in this season.”

Encouraged to attack more by Ten Hag, Dalot scored one of United’s goals of the season – a screamer at Sheffield United in October. That was among three goals and five assists for a low-scoring team.

He also became a father for the first time, to Clara. “She was born in Manchester and is a real Mancunian,” he says of a place where he has finally started to feel at home after a difficult first couple of years. A shop in the city center that sells Portuguese food is handy when she decides to go beyond her strict diet limits and have a “pastel de nata” – a custard tart.

Dalot grew up in the northern city of Porto and was indoctrinated to support the local team of the same name, especially by his father, who went to every home game. When he wasn’t playing football or the piano, Dalot junior was a ball boy at Porto matches, jumping into the crowd and celebrating big goals with his fellow supporters before rising through the ranks to make the first team. , making his league debut at the age of 18.

He has spoken to people at United’s new part-owner INEOS, as have the other players in the squad, and Dalot is optimistic about the club’s future. He uses his belief that most people in England want to see United fail rather than return to greatness as his motivation. The opposite, he believes, was true during his season in Italy, where most people in that country wanted a strong return to seven-time European champions Milan.

Dalot recently surpassed 150 appearances for United but is now focusing on the summer to play for Portugal at the European Championship, which starts next month. He feels the mood in the training camp is better than he has ever known it and has been impressed by Roberto Martinez as their new 2022 World Cup coach, admiring his personality, rules, discipline and tactics.

But it is at United where Dalot’s stock has risen the most, his sheer focus paying off on the pitch and recognized with individual awards after his best season at United – his teammates voted him player of the year.

He is extremely proud of winning the FA Cup, their second trophy in 15 months, hardly a bad return for a stuttering team.

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(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)