Diego Orlando Benaglio (born 8 September 1983) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
He spent most of his professional career with Stuttgart and Wolfsburg in Germany's top flight, the Bundesliga, winning the 2009 league championship and appearing in almost 300 competitive matches with the latter club. He also played three years in Portugal earlier in his career, with Nacional.
Born in Zürich, Benaglio finished his development at hometown club Grasshopper Club Zürich. Still in his teens he moved to Germany and joined VfB Stuttgart, but appeared exclusively for the reserves during his three-year spell.
Benaglio only missed three matches in the 2008–09 campaign as the Wolves were crowned Bundesliga champions for the first time in their 64-year history.[6]The following year he appeared significantly less, due to injury.[7]
Benaglio made 39 appearances across all competitions for the team from the principality. He and fellow goalkeepers Danijel Subašić and Seydou Sy were all released in June 2020.[14]
On 18 August 2020, Benaglio announced his retirement from professional football.[15][16]
As the national team qualified to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Benaglio played all three group stage matches in an eventual group stage exit, conceding only one goal.[18] This included a 1–0 victory over Spain, who later won the tournament.[19]
1 Includes DFB Pokal matches. 2 Includes Europa League and Champions League matches. 3 Includes DFL-Supercup and relegation play-off matches. 4 Although still a second-team regular, Benaglio made his first-team debut that season in the UEFA Cup.
^"Benaglio vor wochenlanger Pause!" [Benaglio could be out for weeks!]. Wolfsburger Allgemeine (in German). 30 January 2010. Archived from the original on 25 June 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2020.