Earlier this year, Diego González left the only home he’d ever known and came to Maine in search of his scoring touch and rediscovering his confidence.
With the Portland Hearts of Pine’s second season in USL League One nearing its conclusion, it’s clear he found both. But the 23-year-old Houston native, who joined the Houston Dynamo’s academy at 12, has discovered something more in Portland: a genuine affection for Maine.
“Overall, it’s been a good learning experience here,” González said. “The weather is nice. Obviously it gets cold a little bit but the summer was amazing and now the fall is getting here. It’s good to experience that, just because I’ve always been in the heat. And then you have the fans and the stadium. It’s all been a lot of fun.”
Billed by coach Bobby Murphy as an exciting young talent, González, who is on loan to Portland from Houston Dynamo 2, is one of the most lethal goal scorers in USL1. He has the fourth-highest goal-per-game scoring rate among the league’s leading scorers this season while proving unshakable under pressure, highlighted by his game-tying penalty kick in the last few seconds of a match earlier this month at Spokane.
“Since coming on loan from Houston, Diego has been one of the most potent attacking players in the league when we talk about pure goal contributions, goals and assists per game,” said Ray Saari, the Hearts’ sporting director. “I think that he’s shown consistently that he has the ability to do that. We’re happy for a guy like that, that the work he’s putting into the team is being recognized on a league-wide basis.”
González signed his first professional contract at 19 with Houston Dynamo 2, just in time for the inaugural season of MLS NEXT Pro in 2022. He played 19 games that first year and scored twice. A year later he started all 28 of his appearances and scored 13 goals, second-most on the team. In 2024 he played nearly 2,500 minutes, scored 6 goals and tied for the league lead with 10 assists, earning a spot on the MLS NEXT Pro Best XI.
In March 2025, González scored on a long-range volley for the Dynamo first team in a friendly against El Salvador’s national team. He was flying high and his future looked bright. Then, in a training session, González broke his tibia when he was tackled hard.
What ensued was a difficult year: González had surgery, but when the injury wasn’t healing properly, he had to undergo a second surgery. Doctors had initially told González that his recovery would take five months, but that turned into 11 months. When he finally returned to practice in the spring of 2026, González worried that his leg would not hold up, which can be common for athletes following significant surgeries.
“I’m not gonna lie to you, in the beginning I wasn’t too comfortable,” González said. “I was still having a little bit of a problem with the tackles. What if it happens again? It took me a while to get over that fear. I don’t normally get scared like that. So it was very different to me.”
All of his hard work paid off, though. After arriving in Portland on loan from Dynamo 2, González scored a goal on three shots in a loss vs. Chattanooga. And he has kept on scoring, leading Portland in goals for the season with 9 tallies, including some spectacular efforts like his brazen shot from midfield in August against One Knoxville SC.
Taking shots like that has just become natural for González, who has spent the better part of two decades honing his skills, going back to his days of being coached by his father as a little kid. Scoring goals is all about muscle memory, he explained.
“A good goal scorer has to be good at finishing and first touch,” he said. “That’s what I have been working on forever, just making sure I get the reps in.”
González is disappointed in the club’s results this season (Portland has been eliminated from USL1 playoff contention) because of giving up so many last-minute goals, but he is pleased with how his body has held up.
“I’ve been good, it’s been the kind of season that I wanted to have personally,” González said. “Obviously coming back from an injury wasn’t easy. But I also put that in the back of my head, this is my year coming back from injury, and thank God, it doesn’t seem like I was away for a long time.”
González has matured by living in Portland. It’s the first time he has been away from family, the first time he has had to take care of himself alone. That meant everything from shopping for groceries for himself to just figuring out what to do when not playing soccer because he hasn’t had his family to lean upon.
“I come from a big family, and obviously I miss my family,” González said. “The nieces and nephews are always at the house, there’s always noise, aunts, cousins, everyone coming over. So being here has been kind of a good thing. You have your own space, you can do what you want. It’s something new but it was something that was eventually going to happen.”
Now that the season is nearly over, the question for González is whether he will stay with Portland or return to play for Dynamo 2. Asked recently what his hopes are, he said his first preference is to return to Houston because of his decade-plus connections to the Dynamo system, along with being closer to family.
“That would be the main goal,” he said. “But you know, right now I’m just trying to finish the season as strong as I can and then see what happens. That’s out of my control.”
Portland isn’t out of the question, though, he said.
“It isn’t like, ‘Oh there’s no way I would come back,’ because I have definitely enjoyed my time here,” González said.
What’s the biggest reason for that? he was asked. It’s all about the fans.
“The way they show up, it’s insane, just so good,” González said. “I didn’t think it was going to be like that. And everywhere you go, people are wearing merch. You see that passion, it motivates you as a player.”
