SANDY — At just 22 years old, Diego Luna seemingly has the world in his grasp, a U.S. senior men’s international who scored in a 5-1 win over 15th-ranked Uruguay in Tampa, Florida, and two-time MLS All-Star whose stay with Real Salt Lake is likely only as long as he wants it to be prior to a move to Europe.
But before all that, there was a time — not long ago, he admits — when last year’s MLS Young Player of the Year was scared. Afraid. Anxious and panicked, to use some of his own words.
So what’s different from that shy, anxious teenager who took a job at a local Dutch Bros. coffee shop to work on his social skills and the one who seems to be on track toward a spot in Mauricio Pochettino’s first-choice group for the FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada in a year?
Luna credits much of the turnaround and success to his partner, a young son whom he regularly brings to RSL home games and training sessions — and therapy. Much of Luna’s physical turnaround was mental, when he admitted that it’s OK to not be OK.
“It’s OK to speak up, it’s OK to be vulnerable, it’s OK to get out of the stereotype of being strong if you hold everything in,” Luna told local RSL media Wednesday on a conference call from U.S. camp. “I think that’s the biggest thing that I want to break into kids’ minds, to understand that it’s OK to speak up and that’s not what defines you as making you strong or this stereotype we have.
“It’s OK to reach out for help, and it’s OK to be vulnerable. At the end of the day, that’s what makes you the strongest.”
Now he’s trying to spread that same message that is drawing major attention.
As the recipient of Major League Soccer’s Audi Goals Drive Progress Impact Award on Wednesday, Luna was awarded $150,000 from Audi and MLS for Primary Children’s Hospital and the Primary Promise program, which helps positively impact the health and future of children.
The full presentation will take place Dec. 6 at the MLS Cup final (12:30 p.m. MST, FOX).
Luna said he went through “five or six years of thinking I would get out of this, of thinking these were normal feelings” as he battled mental health and anxiety.
“It took me one session with a therapist to realize this is not how normal is supposed to be, and how different the other side of the mind can be and how your emotions can be different,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing: don’t be afraid to get help, and understand that some feelings and emotions you have aren’t normal.
“There is help you can receive to feel your best.”
Luna was also featured in a Players’ Tribune feature in September, a powerful essay where he spoke about his struggles with mental health, self doubt and anxiety, that also awarded $50,000 to Intermountain Health’s Primary Children’s Hospital Behavioral Health Center in Taylorsville in partnership with MLS and Audi.
Luna is part of a new wave of athletes, celebrities and other public figures championing mental health awareness.
He’s one of 17 athletes that also include Olympians Chloe Kim and Noah Lyles, WNBA stars Paige Bueckers and A’ja Wilson, NFL standouts Bijan Robinson and Russell Wilson, and NASCAR driver Alex Bowman (among others) who are part of the Ad Council’s “Love, Your Mind” mental health campaign encouraging people nationwide to prioritize their mental health.
Real Salt Lake midfielder Diego Luna (8) takes a shot on goal during a MLS match between Real Salt Lake and the Vancouver Whitecaps at America First Field in Sandy on Saturday, May 24, 2025. (Photo: Brice Tucker, Deseret News)
The campaign launched with minute-long PSAs and a “playbook” of resources at LoveYourMindPlaybook.org that provide tools and stories to inspire conversations and everyday mental health action.
“It’s about time,” Luna said bluntly of the rise in mental health awareness and initiatives.
And for Luna, focusing on the mind improved his physical play — becoming one of the top rising stars in MLS and U.S. soccer at a crucial moment in his career, with 22 goals and 19 assists in his first 3.5 years with Salt Lake that included a team-high nine goals with seven assists in 2025. He even said he felt “10 times better” after even his first therapy session.
Of course, he didn’t stop there — another key message he hopes to spread.
“I think that motivation alone has kept me coming,” Luna said. “I think the feeling of feeling more emotionally stable, more clear in the mind, more stress-free has made the effort for me to push through it worth it; feeling better is the No. 1 thing, right?
“It’s about buying into the program, buying into the help you’re getting, and understanding why you are getting it. … At the end of the day, that’s what will your mind to process and continue to work toward something that is benefitting you.”
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.
