On January 26, Brazilian media Hoje em Dia reported that Shandong Luneng's former core Diego Tardelli, who currently plays for Atlético Mineiro, may return to Asia to switch to the Japanese J-League team, and the 35-year-old veteran has repeatedly shown love for Shandong after leaving.
Diego Tardelli Martins (born 10 May 1985) is a 1.80 m tall player who plays as a striker. Tardelli is physically strong, fast, has good vision, strong impact, good bounce, excellent technique, and excellent tandem ability. Tardelli was a full-time Center for the Brazilian national team, making 13 appearances for the Brazilian national team and scoring 3 goals.
Tardelli has played for São Paulo de São Paulo, Spain's Real Betis, Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia, and Al Qalafa in Qatar. In 2013, he joined Atlético Mineiro in Brazil, and on the evening of October 11, 2014, he helped Brazil defeat Argentina in the South American Super Derby Cup held at the Beijing Bird's Nest.
On 17 January 2015, Tardelli joined Shandong Luneng from Atlético Mineiro and helped win the Super Cup in his first game for Luneng. But in the 2015 season, because of Montillo in the front court as the core of the attack, Tardelli did not have many opportunities to take the ball, he was more cruising on the flanks, because of the distance from the goal, the attack was not efficient. That season, Tardelli made 19 appearances, contributing 6 goals and 5 assists, and only 2 assists in 5 games of the AFC Champions League, so he was given a nickname of "water tower" by fans.
In the first half of the 2016 season, under Brazilian coach Meneses, Tardelli shined in the AFC Champions League, scoring goals in a row, contributing 6 goals and 2 assists, becoming an absolute contributor to Luneng's access to the quarterfinals of the AFC Champions League. Unfortunately, back in the league, fans still don't buy Tardelli's performance. In particular, after Magat took over the Luneng coaching whip, he began to resume the long-pass rushing tactic, which Tardelli was not accustomed to. For this reason, he publicly questioned Magath on his personal Twitter, and was punished by being sent to the reserve team.
Before the start of the 2017 season, Tardelli was originally the first choice to leave the team, but it was Yusire who finally "left". After 5 months of not playing an official game, Tardelli returned to Luneng, at this time, although the tactics with Pele as the fulcrum did not change, but Montillo has left, Terdéri was used as a free man in the front, running more flexible, attacking efficiency has been significantly improved, 18 appearances contributed 15 goals and 2 assists, so the fans changed his name to "Tower God".
In the 2018 season, although the coach of Luneng was changed to Li Xiaopeng, Luneng's playing style did not change at all, and Tardelli became an indispensable frontcourt offensive core of the team. He made 29 appearances during the season, contributing 20 goals and 7 assists. After the contract expired for the 2018 season, Tardelli did not get a renewal from Luneng because he wanted a big three-year contract and Luneng only wanted to give him a 1+1 contract. During his four seasons with Luneng, he made a total of 98 appearances in official matches for the team, scoring 51 goals and assisting 26 times.
In February 2019, Tardelli joined Gremio of the Baliga. After returning to the Bajia, the 33-year-old Tashin Athletic was in a slump, and at the beginning of the year, he only scored 1 goal in the 1/4 finals, only 4 goals in 29 Baja League games, and only 1 goal in 10 Copa Libertadores, which was disappointing. On 16 January 2020, Brazilian side Gremio officially announced that the club had terminated their contract with striker Tardelli early.
In February 2020, Tardelli played for Atlético Mineiro for the third time in his career. On July 15 last year, he came off the bench in a warm-up match between Atletico Mineiro and Mineiro Americas, and then suffered a collision with opposing defender Anderson, which fractured and dislocated his right ankle, thus recovering from injuries for more than half a year. Today, he has only made one appearance for Atlético Mineiro.
After leaving Luneng, Tardelli repeatedly showed his love for Shandong and China through personal social media, and he was also the most affectionate foreign aid for the club in Luneng's history, so he was called "Ta Aiguo". Here, we wish the "Tower God" a second spring in the J-League!