Juan Fernando Quintero was presented with great enthusiasm in a Junior who thought big: he wanted to fight for the Copa Sudamericana and the 2023-I League title.
However, both Quintero and the team had a disappointing semester: Junior did not make it past the first round of the continental tournament, eliminated by Tolima, and in the League he was left out of the semifinal home runs.
The midfielder had a semester to forget: he was barely in seven games, he only scored one goal and an injury took him out of the team since March of this year. He hasn’t played for a minute since Hernán Darío Gómez took over as coach.
Quintero left Junior suddenly. This Saturday he said goodbye with a message that did not clarify the causes of his departure. The main version, according to the club’s top shareholder, Fuad Char, was that the player was not satisfied with the management of DT.
Would Quintero’s departure also be due to economic issues?
The journalist Carlos Antonio Vélez wrote a thread on his Twitter account explaining Quintero’s situation. In the first trill, he confirmed that there were differences between the player and ‘Bolillo’.
“Serious distancing with the DT. He does not share his way of playing, his style, his management and his treatment. He wants to win titles and he believes that in Junior he will not achieve it with the current game idea. Be strangely relegated and mistreated,» Vélez wrote.
Quintero, in the junior’s game.
ALFONSO SUAREZ/KRONOS AGENCY
Vélez also told the version of the club’s managers, in which the economic component ended up being one of the keys to Quintero’s departure.
“Quintero wanted to buy the pass for 1.5 million dollars. Contract renewal, which at the current price, would be about 4.5M more for three years. In 6 months he played 7 games (he was injured for a long time), which meant a cost per game of more or less 450 million pesos. The effort was made but it was not possible to continue with those costs. There is no pocket that holds. In Colombian soccer, these are unmanageable figures (approximate values and at today’s exchange rate),» said Vélez.
The communicator launched his own conclusion about the scandal that hit Barranquilla, pointing out that Junior did not want to «make that useless and costly economic effort,» and therefore the easy way out was to blame Hernán Darío Gómez.
Then he criticized Quintero, and «the ’10’ of the past»: «The truth is that for a while now the demand of current football in intensity and physical response is taking its toll on the ’10’ of the past. That is why they no longer come out, and those that are there do not play or there are no top teams. Proven truth!»
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With Soccerred