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Finally, 2021 arrived, all the successful history with River Plate was completely in the past and now Juan Fernando Quintero faces a new challenge in his career: the China League.
In dialogue with journalist Juan Felipe Cadavid from Caracol Radio, the creative from Antioquia was calm with the life decision he made, sent a direct message to those who criticize his arrival at Shenzhen FC and assured that he does not close the door to European football .
Quintero assured that “it moves me to be calm and happy”, which is why playing in an exotic league does not consider it as a setback in his career. “I went there because I got to know the club, the identity, the rigid rules, it wasn’t just for money. People say China is money and not ”, he declared.
Thus, he said that “Europe is always open to everyone” and both in the elite leagues and in Asia “there is also a ball and players.” In this vein, he gave Belgian Axel Witsel as an example: “He came from China, now he is in Borussia Dortmund and there are thousands of cases.”
And the ex-River thesis is not bad at all. There are several cases of footballers who reached the Chinese Super League and then made the leap to European football. One thing does not remove the other.
Yannick Ferreira Carrasco: The Belgian winger was released in his first three seasons with Atlético de Madrid, but left surprisingly in February 2018 for Dalian Yifang. He stayed there for eleven months until his return to the mattress box was confirmed and today he is a fundamental piece for Diego Pablo Simeone.
Paulinho: The Brazilian is the one who best represents that when he is a great player, the league does not matter. He arrived at Guangzhou Evergrande in mid-2015 and stayed there for two years until he was signed by FC Barcelona for 40 million euros! In Spain he had an extremely outstanding season and when it seemed that he was taking over a position in the midfield, he decided to return to China in exchange for 50 million. He went, shut his mouth and came back.
Odion Jude Ighalo: The Nigerian was a benchmark for Watford, but Changchun Yatai arrived in 2017 with 20 million pounds and took him away. His great performance catapulted him to Shanghai Shenhua and from there, in January 2020, he earned his return to England with nothing more and nothing less than Manchester United, a club that maintains him to this day.
Nemanja Gudelj: The Serbian midfielder was in Chinese football between 2017 and 2018, from there he left on loan to Sporting Lisboa where he broke it as a midfielder and Seville acted quickly to hire him. Gudelj rescinded his contract with Guangzhou Evergrande to reach Spanish soil free and be an important part of his team.
Wu Lei: Chinese footballers have also earned their right to play at the highest level. The Nanjing-born played for 11 years with Shanghai SIPG, became an idol and this allowed him to reach Spanish football. RCD Espanyol hired him in 2019 and little by little he has earned a place among the headlines with outstanding performances.
And so we can name more cases such as Jackson Martínez (he arrived in Portimonense from Portugal), Roger Martínez (Villarreal), the Spanish Jonathan Viera (Las Palmas), the Brazilian Fernando (Spartak Moscow), the Portuguese José Fonte (Lille) or the German Anthony Modeste (Cologne).
