BEAVERTON, Ore. – Portland Timbers fans can be forgiven for seeing Claude Dielna as a minor mystery. Though the French defender is 31 years old, he’s spent less than two seasons in Major League Soccer, and those were across the country, with the New England Revolution. His playing life before that included stops in Greece, England, Slovakia and Romania after being groomed in his home country, hardly the type of journey that draws eyes from Cascadia.
For Dielna, that experience may prove one of his greatest virtues, with the lessons accrued over 13 years as a professional expected to augment the relative youth on the backline of Julio Cascante (25), Modou Jadama (24) and Bill Tuiloma (23), as well as the present of fellow Parisian Larrys Mabiala.