J.Juan Fernando Quintero has been in the Colombian Senior National Team for almost 12 years. José Pékerman gave him his debut when he was just a youth player, on October 16, 2012, in a friendly match against Cameroon in Barranquilla.
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However, despite his enormous experience, the fact that he already played in Europe and was Libertadores champion with River Plate, and that he is one of the two Colombian players who scored goals in two World Cups (he did so in Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018 ), the current Racing player has an unfinished business: he has never played in the Copa América.
Néstor Lorenzo trusts him and that is why he included him in the list of 26 players for the tournament that begins this Thursday with the match between Argentina and Canada, and in which The Colombian National Team will debut on Monday against Paraguay in Houston.
Juan Fernando Quintero
Photo:Colombian Football Federation
Why has Quintero never gone to the Cup? Here is the explanation, case by case. Since he was first called up, the team has participated in four editions of the tournament.
Chile 2015: Juan Fernando Quintero came without rhythm in Porto
The first one that was lost was in 2015 in Chile. He was in his second season with Porto, but the coach at the time, Julen Lopetegui, had little regard for him. He even played a game in the reserve team looking for continuity.
For that reason, José Pékerman did not call him up, despite having played six friendlies before the Cup, two of them as a starter, when the team beat Bahrain and Kuwait in March 2015.
Juan Fernando Quintero
Photo:Efe
Centennial 2016: the frustrated passage through Rennes took him out of the tournament
Quintero changed clubs and in mid-2015 he moved to Rennes in France. But there he played very little: only 14 games. And from February 2016 until the end of the season he did not perform for a single minute. That took him out of the Copa América Centenario.
He was even away from the National Team for a long time: he did not play from March 2015 until the 2-3 victory against France, on March 23, 2018, when he scored the winning goal in Saint-Denis.
The painful injury that took Quintero out of the 2019 Copa América
Quintero returned to the country and got a second wind in Medellín. There he was seen by Marcelo Gallardo, who took him to River Plate. 2018 was a great year for Quintero: he went to the World Cup and scored the goal of the Copa Libertadores title against Boca in Madrid.
But this time bad luck not only took him out of the National Team, but also from the fields for a long time: on March 17, 2019, he tore the cruciate ligament in his left knee in a match against Independiente.
Carlos Queiroz had him on the list to face Japan, five days later, in a friendly in Yokohama: goodbye to the Copa América that year.
Brazil 2021: Quintero barely played again in China
When the 2021 edition was played, again in Brazil, Quintero was playing for Shenzen in China. But he was barely getting into the rhythm of competition, after a year without playing since his first departure from River. For this reason, Reinaldo Rueda did not include him in the call. It did appear later, in the final stretch of the failed qualifying round for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
At the age of 31, Quintero returns to the National Team, this time to play in the Cup. Néstor Lorenzo has had him as an alternative to replace James Rodríguez, for whom he has entered three of the four games he has played in the stage. of the Argentine. The other started as a starter, against Paraguay. He is ready to debut, like when he was a youth player.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
Sports Deputy Editor
@josasc
