In January 2019 Blackburn Rovers decided to turn an initial loan signing into a permanent transfer by agreeing to pay Nottingham Forest £7m for 19 year old Ben Brereton.
It was a signing that left many Forest and Rovers fans bemused, mainly due to the large transfer fee involved, with the belief that Rovers had paid too much for the player.
Ben found things difficult in his first 18 months at the club, scoring only two League goals, with fans questioning why the club had spent such a large fee on him.
However, things were to change for the better in 2020 when a Football Manager Researcher discovered that Brereton had Chilean family roots, meaning he was eligible to play for Chile. This information was added to the Football Manager game database and Brereton suddenly encountered a wave of interest from Chilean football fans and fans of the game itself.
With regular game time at Rovers and having worked on his upper body strength, Brereton's performances in a Rovers shirt began to improve rapidly and this led to the #BreretonALaRoja campaign going into overdrive across social media among the Chile fans. Brereton was given his first call up to the Chile squad in May 2021, by Martin Lasarte, then Chile manager, and he made his international debut against Argentina in June 2021. Brereton would go on to score against Bolivia and put in impressive performances against Paraguay and Venezuela, increasing his popularity in South America. Chile had found a new fan favourite.
Following his Chilean exploits, Brereton returned to Rovers a new man. He added 'Diaz' to the end of his name and fired in 22 League goals for Rovers in the 2021/22 season. Diaz then scored 16 goals in all competitions in his final season as a Rovers player, with the club missing out on the play offs on goal difference.
A fascinating rise, the Brereton Diaz story is one that will amuse and please fans in equal measure.
Making 176 appearances for Rovers and scoring 47 goals. Here are all 47 of those goals.