Juan Fernando Quintero: a reminder of the glory days of football's No10

In recent years, football has attempted to eliminate subjectivity. The rise of VAR is the most obvious example, but we also see players’ movements tracked by GPS and statistics such as expected goals abound. The pure No10 – a player trusted to organize chaos and produce results from the unknown – is a casualty of our era.

Until Sunday, Juan Fernando Quintero was one of the few remaining creators still allowed to work at his own pace. He was at the top of his form last year, lifting River Plate to their fourth Copa Libertadores title. But just before halftime in a 3-0 win over Independiente last weekend, he tore his ACL as he tried to beat the opposing fullback. His career is by no means over but the 26-year-old will likely miss the rest of the season and this summer’s Copa America.

The Colombian does not fit modern football’s search for efficiency and structure. It is his imperfections that help define him. He is slightly overweight but has a left foot as buttery smooth as a tres leches cake. Quintero is a throwback, an echo of his idol Juan Román Riquelme, who retired in 2015. Like Riquelme, he moves languidly in and out of the final third of the pitch. He can accelerate, but does so only when absolutely necessary, preferring to cut back on his marker and slice defensive lines with silky through-balls. And in the tradition of the true 10, Quintero refuses to do anything as base as defending. Instead, he commands center stage and the results can be spectacular:

Riquelme said that goal was a fluke and that Quintero would never be able to score from that kind of angle again. He promptly did. Twice. Once against Racing Club and then Rosario Central. He has the ability to anger fans as often as he uplifts them. Every touch could go a number of ways: a missed chance, failure, a spectacular goal. But the uncertainty makes him even more compelling.

River Plate’s manager Marcelo Gallardo, who also played No10 for the club, has nurtured Quintero, giving him freedom and accepting his inconsistencies. Unlike, for example, Dennis Bergkamp, who worked alone ahead of deep-lying midfielders against catenaccio defences during his ill-fated Internazionale days, Quintero is allowed to drift. Two box-to-box midfielders cover Quintero’s back. Goals come as he connects with forwards and wingbacks, and, of course, through free kicks:

Quintero has not had an easy path in football, and his latest injury is another low. He experienced tragedy at an early age. His father, Jaime, was a talented footballer who joined the army to support his family: he disappeared when returning home on leave and was never seen again. Quintero inherited his father’s athletic ability and showed early promise, but just 27 games into his professional career a cynical studs up tackle broke two bones in his right leg. Still, just two years later he was called up for Colombia and by 21 he had scored against Ivory Coast at the 2014 World Cup. Later he fell out of favor at Porto under Julen Lopetegui and barely played. Disillusioned, he followed his reggaeton dreams with Nicky Jam and Maluma for a while. Due to a perceived lack of discipline, he was loaned back to Colombia’s Independiente Medellín where he rediscovered his form and then went on to River Plate to lift the Copa Libertadores.

It will take longer than the expected six-month rehab for Quintero to climb back to the peak where he stood until Sunday. He may return to find that River Plate have been forced to move on, following the trend of modern football and shifting their system. If so, hopefully he can find his place elsewhere and continue reminding supporters of a bygone era that embraced the unmeasurable.