Juanfer Quintero: “Gallardo helped me, I really learned to live”

Juan Fernando Quintero, the 10 of River Plate and author of the most important goal in the history of the club in the final of the Copa Libertadores against Boca in 2018, arrived at Caja Negra, the cycle of interviews by Julio Leiva, with whom he recalled his upbringing, his love for River, the match against Boca, his relationship with Marcelo Gallardo and his passion for music. The Colombian hooker recalled how he arrived at River in January 2018, when he wore the colors of Independiente de Medellín: “I can’t say no to a big team, no, I can’t waste this opportunity and I had to prove to myself that I could take on that responsibility of being in a big team again. for it was not Europe.” River really has nothing to envy, to any of the clubs where I was and here I found my place in football and in the world. And well, since I arrived I had my goals clear, I worked that year. At the end of the year we were able to win a tournament of this magnitude as was the Copa Libertadores, “recalled the midfielder and thanked “God and life” for playing in the Millionaire.In this context, he confessed that days before the final in Madrid he was loaded with the sun: “It is a muscle that normally when you are loaded you can neither walk nor run. And well, I got to that final with just enough. The previous days I didn’t train. They are coincidences and things that happen, but I had practiced control and kicking. The day before we did it with Gallardo, with Mora. And that happened in the final. And you say Wow! I think I think he was the one chosen for that moment and life put him there for me. I also made my merits throughout the year in preparing myself, because I do not think that it is all coincidence or coincidences something that you cause since you have something in your mind you work for that. And I was given the opportunity. And well, what else can I say? I am privileged.” While on the play with which he put River in advantage for the first time in the whole series he commented: “I see someone who is here, Enzo gives me the ball and I see someone like coming towards me from here behind. I don’t know, through the net and I touch a quick ball to Julián Álvarez… The first thing I do is get off the mark. When I leave the brand, a person comes with me next to me and I stay. I pretend that I go and stay. That I am creating my space myself. Camilo enters that game to give me that connection and when I stop, I say if you give it to me the only thing I have is to control and kick, because I have four or five players around that are thousandths of a second, which if I control bad long does not give me. Then I slow down, Camilo gives it to me, I control and what I control I take the shot and it’s like more that game that characterizes me and in a short small space, take advantage. And well, it was a very nice goal that really marks what is one of my qualities.” On the other hand, he referred to his relationship with Marcelo Gallardo, since they met in 2017 until today, that the coach will say goodbye to River: “Before Gallardo I had very, very good coaches. I believe that everyone has their merit. But there are people who mark you in your life, everyone can have everything very well, but there are people who mark you for how you live football. Gallardo is very different. I think he’s a person who lives football differently. And that marked me. And that shocked me. And it helped me. And I really learned to live. I believe that the greatest teaching that Gallardo has given me, because he is a person who leaves, who marks many things to people who work hard. And Gallardo, for me, more than football, are also those things. How he lives his life, how he lives as a result of football. And that really marked me. That’s the part that impacted me the most.” While on the departure of the coach he said: “I knew that at some point it was going to happen, but I don’t know if I was going to live it. But as a result of that it was a very particular issue because it’s like a duel that I did and that I’m doing. And I live it like this because he is a person who has taught me a lot, not only his coaching staff, his work group. Maybe the people who are no longer going to be, what we are not going to live with and that makes you sad, that they put you and pass many emotions through your head and in particular him. And you come to think that Will I be able to continue? Maybe I will be able to endure because we have lived so many things that you say wow! I don’t know what it would be like with another person, with another partner. But well, that is the life that always leaves us a teaching and we have to continue that legacy, continue with everything and that in general of life that these things happen, that we enjoy it to the fullest. Yes, and that I live grateful, eternally grateful to them for everything. Sure. But hey, the truth is that the news hit me hard.” In addition, he was asked about his difficult upbringing in the Comuna 13 of Medellí: “When I was a child, more or more Minus nine or ten years, I had the sadness of seeing two cousins die. One was the neighbor Alexandre, may he rest in peace. Another was in front of my house. They were very strong acts for me when I was a child. But hey, in the end I think you grow up with that. And well, many friends. The truth is that I grew up with many friends and in the midst of these armed conflicts everyone seeks their interests and well, today they are not there.” Meanwhile, he elaborated on his feeling for music: “I am a music lover, I love music, I write in my spare time. I am always very close to music, by my friends, by my friends. Today my brother is an urban music artist (Maluma), so I told you since I was a child. I come from a culture in Comuna 13, which is freestyle, rap, hip hop. What we really live in the streets, as they say. And well, the day I catch the singing hobby, I record songs. I recently made an album with some friends who sing Christian music. They took me into account, we took them out. This is me. I don’t think I’ve ever betrayed myself in the face of that.” I admire Juan Luis Guerra very much. It’s my favorite artist and really like the person is one of the artists I admire the most and it’s for me how that artist is that I am. I mean, it is. I haven’t gone. I won’t call him, but he’s the person I admire most in music.” Finally, he confessed his admiration for Argentine freestyle: “Let’s see, I follow everyone, but what is Dtoke, Stuart, Papo … Wos in his time, I know them all today and there is Mecha, there is the Larrix, the Klan. I follow a lot what the Freestyle league is since 2018, at the time Thunder that impacted me and that today have become world artists and recognized that there are many and others have left their mark and their legend. And in the middle of the battle.” If we go to the black box of his life, what is the moment that makes him Juanfer?”: “I reflect what my grandparents were for me. They taught me how to work. My grandfather sold lottery and brought food home. My grandmother was that leader, who commanded the whole family. That he always tried to unite and bring them together.  And that’s me. I always wanted to carry that legacy. Today I see it in my family, with my daughter.  And that when they were absent I really became that figure of theirs. So, well, the least I have to do.”
Watch the full interview here.

Original source in Spanish