Darwin Quintero
Carlos Darwin Quintero Villalba is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Categoría Primera A club Deportivo Pereira. Quintero is also known by his nickname of El Científico del Gol. He has played various roles throughout his career, spending time leading the line as a striker, playing out wide as a winger, and playing underneath another striker as a second striker and central attacking midfielder throughout his career. His main attributes throughout his career have been his pace, creativity, and dribbling ability.
Club career
Early career and Deportes Tolima
Quintero began his career with Panadería Kuty training school and Barsa Fútbol Club. His mentor Élkin Congote tried to find a better situation for Quintero to develop and set up trials with more prestigious youth teams in Cali, Carlos Sarmiento Lora School and Selección Valle, as well as Boca Juniors, but they all rejected him. Quintero did catch the attention of Humberto Ortiz, a former top flight coach and now a scout for Categoría Primera A club Deportes Tolima. Tolima and Ortiz negotiated with Barsa and Quintero joined the youth ranks of Tolima in 2004. Quintero was part of Jorge Luis Bernal's Tolima youth side that won gold for men's football at the 2004 National Games of Colombia.Quintero made his first team debut at the age of 18 on 18 September 2005 in a 1–0 defeat to Atlético Junior. That would be his only first team appearance of the year. In 2006, after being placed on a special vitamin supplement and workout routine to help Quintero bulk up, he was called up to the Tolima first team, which was now managed by Quintero's former youth coach Jorge Luis Bernal. He scored his first goal on 19 February 2006 in a 3–1 win over Boyacá Chicó. Quintero scored his first career hat-trick on 26 February in a 7–3 victory against Envigado. He went on to score 19 times in 42 appearances in his first full season. Quintero and Tolima finished the Campeonato Finalización top of the table, but they lost in the final 2–1 on aggregate to Cúcuta Deportivo. Quintero also made his debut in continental football in 2006, first appearing and scoring in the Copa Sudamericana on 22 August in a 3–1 win over Independiente Medellín in the first leg of the first stage, with Tolima eventually qualifying to the next stage 4–2 on aggregate. He would score again on 21 September to give Tolima a 2–2 draw with Mineros de Guayana, with Tolima advancing on away goals. Tolima would advance to the Round of 16 before falling to eventual champions Pachuca.
2007 saw Quintero make his Copa Libertadores debut on 7 March, with Quintero scoring once to give Tolima an important 1–0 win over Cerro Porteño. In the final match of the group against Cúcuta Deportivo, Quintero scored once, but it was not enough as Tolima lost 4–3 in Ibagué, and with this result Tolima were eliminated by finishing third in the group. Quintero and Tolima did not enjoy a successful 2007 Campeonato Apertura, finishing 12th and failing to qualify for the playoffs.
Krylia Sovetov
In July 2007, Quintero joined Russian Premier League side FC Krylia Sovetov Samara along with fellow Colombian and Tolima teammate Juan Carlos Escobar. He made his debut for Krylia Sovetov on 11 August, coming on as a substitute in a 2–0 defeat to Spartak Moscow. He scored his first goal for the club on 28 October in a 3–0 win over Rubin Kazan. It was a rough season for Quintero, who only scored one goal and only played 434 minutes. The season was rough for Krylia Sovetov as well, finishing in 13th place and tied on points with relegated side Kuban Krasnodar.Deportivo Pereira
In 2008, Leonid Slutsky took over as the head coach for Krylia Sovetov and sent Quintero to Colombia on loan with an option to buy to Primera A club Deportivo Pereira for the first half of the Russian Premier League season. Quintero scored his first goal for Pereira on 6 April in a 4–1 defeat to América de Cali. A week later, he scored twice in a 5–2 win over Deportivo Pasto. Quintero ended the Torneo Apertura with 4 goals from 12 appearances and was voted as the best player in the team by a fan poll on the club website.Quintero returned to Samara at the end of May. He trained with Krylia Sovetov for two weeks, but Slutsky did not see a place for him in the team, and he officially left the club on 23 June. Atlético Nacional came close to signing him, with an agreement in place between Krylia Sovetov, Nacional, and Quintero. However Quintero would end up returning to Deportivo Pereira after they decided to exercise their option to buy that was part of the loan agreement.
After Pereira had finished bottom of the Apertura table, Luis Fernando Suárez came in as the new manager. On 24 August, Quintero scored his first goal of the Torneo Finalización to give Pereira a 3–2 win over Millonarios. He would find the back of the net twice on 14 September to give Pereira a 2–0 win over Cúcuta Deportivo. 10 days later, Quintero would score in the 90th minute to give Deportive Pereira a 2–1 win over Junior. Suárez and Quintero helped Deportivo Pereira finish the Torneo Finalización in the top eight of the table and finish one spot above the relegation playoffs in the relegation table, which takes into account performance over the past three seasons. Now in the Torneo Finalización playoffs, Quintero scored a brace against Junior to give Pereira a 3–2 win over Junior. In the 4th match, he scored a hat trick to help Pereira defeat Deportivo Cali 3–1. However, Pereira finished second in the group, failing to advance to the finals. Quintero ended the season with 13 goals in 22 games and was rated as the best player of the season. Quintero's 13 goals gave him the second highest goal tally for the finalización, trailing only Fredy Montero's 16.
Santos Laguna
In December 2008, Quintero joined Santos Laguna of the Mexican Primera División for a transfer fee over $4 million.2008–09 season
He made his debut for Santos on 18 January 2009 in the first match of the Clausura, playing all 90 minutes in a 2–1 defeat against Club América. Quintero started the first two matches of the season due to an injury to star Ecuadorian striker Christian Benítez. After he failed to score in his first 4 matches, there was some media criticism of his lack of goals, but he was praised for his work rate. On 15 February Quintero scored his first goal for Los Guerreros in a 2–1 victory over Chivas. He made his first appearance in the CONCACAF Champions League on 25 February, coming on as a substitute in a 2–0 defeat to the Montreal Impact in the first leg of the quarterfinals. In the return leg of the CCL quarterfinals, Santos found themselves trailing the Impact 4–3 on aggregate as they entered stoppage time. In the 90+1st minute, Quintero scored a goal to level the aggregate score at 4, however Santos still trailed on away goals; but Quintero scored again in the 90+3rd minute to put Los Guerreros up 5–4 on aggregate and into the semifinals. Two weeks later, he scored twice to give Santos a 2–1 victory over Atlante in the first leg of the CCL semifinals. In the second leg with Atlante on 8 April, Quintero assisted Vicente Matías Vuoso's goal to put Santos up 3–2 on aggregate in the 70th minute, however two late goals saw Atlante come back and advance to the final. Santos and Quintero failed to qualify for Liguilla, but he enjoyed a solid debut season, scoring 8 and assisting 2 in 20 appearances across all competitions.2009–10 season
Quintero made his first appearance of the 2009–10 season in a North American SuperLiga match on 28 June 2009. Quintero came on as a substitute in the second half and helped Santos secure a 3–1 win over the Kansas City Wizards in the final match of the group stage. He would play the full 90 minutes and score once in the semifinal with Tigres, however Los Guerreros would fall by the score of 3–2. He made his first Primera División appearance of the season in the first match of the Apertura on 26 July, a 1–1 draw with Monarcas Morelia. He picked up his first goal of the Apertura campaign on 16 August in a 3–2 win over Cruz Azul. Quintero ended the Apertura with 3 goals and 5 assists and helped Santos qualify for the Liguilla. Santos were defeated by Morelia in the first round, losing 4–2 over the two legs.In the opening match of the 2010 Clausura, Quintero came off the bench and scored to help Santos record a 3–2 victory over Morelia. He scored in three consecutive games from matchweek 9 to 11, with Santos winning all three games. On 19 April, he scored and assisted another as Los Verdiblancos defeated San Luis 2–1. Quintero scored 6 times and assisted for 4 goals as Santos qualified for Liguilla. He picked up an assist in the first leg of the quarterfinals as Santos went on to defeat Pumas 2–1 over two legs. Quintero had another assist in the first leg of the semifinals and scored for himself in leg two as Los Guerreros defeated Morelia 10–4 on aggregate. He scored again in the first leg of the final, but Santos would lose on penalties after the second leg, with Toluca winning their 10th league title in club history.
2010–11 season
Quintero opened the 2010–11 season in strong form, scoring once and assisting three times in the first three games of the Apertura. He then entered a patch of bad form, failing to score and only picking up one assist the rest of the season. Despite Quintero's struggles, Santos still managed to qualify for Liguilla, where Quintero came alive. After a quiet quarterfinals against Chiapas, Quintero scored 3 times over two legs to help Santos advance past Club América by an aggregate score of 5–4. He would score again against Monterrey to give Santos a 3–2 win in the first leg of the final, but Rayados would win the return leg 3–0 to take the championship.Quintero started the Clausura strong, scoring and assisting in the opening match, a 2–1 win over Atlante on 8 January. On 2 April, Quintero scored once and recorded an assist in a 3–0 win against Cruz Azul. Quintero was sent off in the 71st minute after headbutting Christian Giménez. Quintero alleged that Giménez pushed him after another Cruz Azul player, Rogelio Chávez, had called Quintero an "ape", sparking his reaction. While Chávez admitted to a verbal altercation with Quintero, he denied using any racist insults. Quintero received a 6 match suspension after the incident, three matches for violent conduct and then another three matches for further aggression towards an opponent after being sent off. Three days later, the suspension was reduced to four matches. He returned from his suspension on 29 April against Estudiantes Tecos, picking up an assist in the 3–1 victory. Quintero had 3 goals and 3 assists in the Clausura, however Santos failed to qualify for Liguilla. In the 2010–11 CONCACAF Champions League Quintero scored 3 goals in 7 appearances, helping Santos advance to the quarterfinals, where they lost to Cruz Azul by an aggregate score of 5–1.