Julián Quiñones leads Mexico to historic victory over Ecuador

For the first time in forty years (!), Mexico won a knockout match at a World Cup last night. Special thanks to Julián Quiñones, who scored a goal and an assist against Ecuador. Finally, all of Mexico has embraced him.

The seismologists on duty in Mexico City on Monday were startled when the machines in front of them started to rattle. An earthquake? No, the shocks weren't heavy enough for that. However, a vibration was indeed detected. A look at the television gave the earth experts an answer to the question where this came from: Julián Quiñones had just scored against Ecuador. Mexico City was turned upside down after the goal of the attacker, who had previously shocked the city by opening the score in the World Cup opening match against South Africa (1-0) and scoring a goal against the Czech Republic (3-0).

Against Ecuador, Quiñones also directly contributed to another Mexican celebration with an assist to Raúl Jiménez's 2-0. The attacker simply could not be contained and was chosen Man of the Match after the clash in the sixteenth finals. His name was definitively established during this World Cup, although Quiñones had already made his mark in the months before. However, this happened out of sight of many football fans, in Saudi Arabia, where he scored no fewer than 33 competition goals for Al-Quadsiah. With this, Quiñones finished above well-known names such as Ivan Toney (32 goals) and Cristiano Ronaldo (28) on the top scorers list of the Saudi Pro League. No surprise then that national coach Javier Aguirre selected Quiñones for this World Cup.

Yet there were Mexicans who were critical of this prior to the tournament. After all, Quiñones was not born Mexican: he comes from Colombia, grew up there and only received Mexican citizenship in 2023. It caused a discussion in the North American country whether El Tri should admit players from outside. Furthermore, Quiñones had not made himself very popular in Mexico by choosing a lucrative contract in Saudi Arabia two years ago. In a football-crazy country with many opinions, many people liked that. With his transfer he had at least said goodbye to the World Cup, as was claimed in various TV programs shortly after his transfer. We now know that nothing could be further from the truth.