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#2 Mariano Diaz – Real Madrid and Dominican Republic (ranked #158)
Real Madrid striker Mariano Diaz may well end up slipping off this list at some point in the future; the Spanish-born 26-year old has one cap for 158th ranked Dominican Republic, but as that cap came in a friendly match with Haiti in 2013 – a match that saw Mariano score the last goal of a 3-1 victory – he remains eligible to play for the country of his birth, and in the hopes of this has reportedly refused any further call-ups.
At club level, meanwhile, Mariano has been with Los Blancos since 2011, when he was still a teenager. After making his way through Real’s various youth and reserve sides – most notably scoring a ridiculous 27 goals in 33 games for their ‘B’ team in their Segunda Division B campaign of 2015-16 – he was promoted to the full senior side, where he made 14 appearances and scored 5 goals in their Champions League-winning season of 2016-17.
A move to Lyon followed, but after one full season in France that saw Mariano score 18 goals in 34 Ligue 1 games, he returned to the Bernabeu for a fee of around €23m, and has since been handed the #7 shirt once worn by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Injuries have hampered his career with Los Blancos since, but he has opened his scoring account in both La Liga and the Champions League for the club.
