Juan Quintero Is Reportedly Heading To MLS— But Not Necessarily Chicago

The Juan Quintero Saga is getting a little murky.

Over the weekend our own Mike Tooley wrote about rumors linking the Fire with the Colombian trequarista. Despite concerns on how the finances would work, as well as how Quintero might fit in the squad, the rumors were generally met with excitement among Fire supporters. There’s little doubt Quintero could add to the Fire’s already formidable attack, and having another goalscorer would go a long way toward Chicago’s thundering campaign for silverware in 2017.

Last night, Colombian sports reporter John Rojas broke the news that Quintero confirmed to media that he is, at the very least, moving to Major League Soccer.

Rojas also posted a link to an audio recording of that exchange between Quintero and reporters. In the interview, Quintero says he’s definitely on the move and all but confirms he’s meandering in the direction of MLS, but that nothing’s official yet and that he also has interest from “a very big club” in Mexico. He also doesn’t mention the Fire. At all.

So IS Quintero coming to Chicago? Guillermo Rivera at Fire Confidential suggests he might not.

While it’s important to take all rumors with a grain of salt, Guillermo has a pretty solid track record with this sort of thing. It seems our collective enthusiasm might’ve been a bit premature.

As our friends at CSN-Chicago note, the Fire hold Quintero’s discovery rights. In theory, Chicago could get something out of this, whether it’s a player trade or some more allocation money. So far Orlando are the only other team linked with Quintero, and some recent reports suggest they’ve bowed out of contention for him. But things can change, and there’s plenty of time left in the transfer rumor for someone else to emerge.

This is a pretty fluid situation right now. We will, of course, bring you more information as it becomes available.

Thanks to our own Sandra Herrera for translating the Quintero interview.