  We present a phenomenological model for the helicity amplitudes T11 and T00
of the rho meson exclusive diffractive leptoproduction in the forward limit.
This model leads to a very good description of the polarized cross-sections
sigmaT and sigmaL when compared to HERA data. This model is based on the impact
factor representation of the helicity amplitudes. The gamma* -> rho impact
factor is computed within the light-cone collinear factorization scheme, the
impact parameter space representation allowing to factorize out the
dipole-target amplitude. Finally our description combines a model for the
dipole-target amplitude that includes the saturation effects with the results
for the impact factor where the twist 2 and twist 3 distribution amplitudes of
the rho meson are involved.
