Diego Luna becomes 1st back-to-back MLS All-Star for RSL in 10 years


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KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Diego Luna becomes the first RSL player in a decade to earn consecutive All-Star selections.
  • Luna's eight goals and four assists highlight his standout season for Real Salt Lake.
  • He contributed two assists for the USMNT in Gold Cup, as well, boosting his international profile.

SALT LAKE CITY — Real Salt Lake star Diego Luna has more in common with club legend and Hall of Famer Nick Rimando than he might realize.

Both are from California, slightly undersized for their positions and possess a quiet confidence that rarely manifests out loud. Luna now joins Rimando as the most recent RSL players to be selected to back-to-back MLS All-Star games, with Rimando accomplishing the feat in 2014 and 2015.

Luna was unsurprisingly voted into the 2025 MLS All-Star game on Wednesday after appearing near the top of the attacking midfielder group in each of the vote counts released on social media in recent weeks.

The vote, made up of fans, players and media, provides an extra confidence boost for the 21-year-old talisman after being a replacement selection for suspended teammate Chicho Arango last year.

"It's always a dream for something like that to happen and be shown as a face of MLS," Luna said when voting began in May. "I think it's just because my performances have been top and you earn those rights to be able to be put in those positions, so I'll continue to play and continue to score goals and do well."

Luna was promoted by the league as a primary candidate for this year's All-Star game alongside players like Lionel Messi and Brandon Vazquez, whose club, Austin FC, is hosting this year's match against the Liga MX All-Stars on Wednesday, July 23.

RSL's leading goalscorer mentioned his eight goals, which match his season total last year, as one of the main reasons for the extra spotlight this season, but his playmaking has also been on full display with a team-high four assists.

The playmaking has extended to Luna's time with the U.S. men's national team at the Gold Cup, as well. The rising international star put together a pair of assists against Trinidad and Tobago on June 15 to help the U.S. win its group and advance to the knockout rounds against Costa Rica on Sunday in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

RSL resumes MLS play Saturday on the road in Kansas City, though Luna is not expected to make his return from the Gold Cup until July 12 at America First Field against the Houston Dynamo.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Caleb Turner covers Real Salt Lake as the team's beat writer for KSL.com Sports. He also oversees the sports team's social media accounts.

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