January 14, 2023, 3:13 PM
January 14, 2023, 3:13 PM
The Colombian international Juan Fernando Quintero will play for the Junior of his country after leaving the Argentine River Plate at the end of 2022, The “shark” club reported this Saturday, ending a long campaign of expectation.
“JuanFer”, who will turn 30 on Wednesday, returns to Colombian soccer in the middle of a soap opera negotiation with the most important club on the Caribbean coast of the country.
On Thursday night both parties had given up the negotiations, but then Junior took an unexpected turn and made his arrival conditional on passing the medical exams.
With the approval of the doctors, the team gave the positive part this Saturday on Twitter: “Welcome to Junior from Barranquilla, Juan Fernando KINGTERO!”.
The brief message was accompanied by a video with several of Quintero’s goals, who reacted on Instagram with a “Thank you” and the figure of a heart.
According to the Colombian press, Quintero will earn the highest salary in the history of local soccer, although in Colombia these figures are not revealed for the safety of the soccer players.
World Cup in Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018, the ’10’ will play this year’s Copa Sudamericana in the jersey of the nine-time Colombian champion.
On Sunday he will be received by the fans at the Metropolitano de Barranquilla stadium, according to Álex Char, member of the family that owns the equipment.
Quintero announced in December that he was not going to renew his contract with River Plate, where he has played since 2017 with a brief stint in Chinese soccer in 2021.
Under the command of DT Marcelo Gallardo, who also left the Millionaire at the end of last year, Quintero won a Copa Libertadores, a Recopa Sudamericana and an Argentine Cup.
In 2018 he was the hero of the historic final against Boca Juniors in Madrid by scoring the goal that paved the way to the Libertadores title after extra time (3-1).
During Gallardo’s farewell, Quintero took the microphone on behalf of his teammates to thank him to the Doll for teaching them “to win, like and thrash”, thus closing one of the most glorious pages of River Plate.
Despite his relevance in goals (19) and assists (16), the midfielder failed to establish himself in the headline and He ended up classifying himself as an ideal player to come off the bench and play the last minutes of games.
Quintero thus becomes the largest signing of a depressed Colombian league. Coffee clubs have less and less participation in the final phases of international tournaments.
Supported by a powerful wallet, Junior is usually the protagonist of the transfer market thanks to his large acquisitions.
Players of the stature of the Chilean Matías Fernández or the Colombians Teófilo Gutiérrez, Miguel Ángel Borja and Yimmi Chará have passed through his squad in recent years.
By 2023, in addition to Quintero, it will have the former international Colombian Carlos Bacca, with a past in soccer in Italy, Spain and Belgium.
Despite the monetary effort, the Junior has not managed to achieve his longed for international title. In 2018 he lost the final of the South American against Athletico Paranaense from Brazil.
