Jarlan Junior Barrera Escalona (born 16 September 1995) is a Colombian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Atlético Nacional Atlético Nacional S. A., best known as Atlético Nacional, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellín. The club is one of only three clubs to have played in every first division tournament in the country's history, the oth ...

Club career

Born in Santa Marta, Barrera joined

Atlético Junior Club Deportivo Popular Junior F.C. S.A. (), commonly known as Junior de Barranquilla, by its old name Atlético Junior, or simply as Junior, is a Colombian professional football team based in Barranquilla, that currently plays in the Categoría ...

's youth setup in 2013, from

La Equidad Club Deportivo La Equidad Seguros, also known as La Equidad, is a professional Colombian football team based in Bogotá, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Metropolitano de Techo stadium. History ...

. He made his first team debut on 7 March 2013, coming on as a second-half substitute for Edwin Cardona in a 6–0 home routing of

Valledupar Valledupar () is a city and municipality in northeastern Colombia. It is the capital of Caesar Department. Its name, ''Valle de Upar'' (Valley of Upar), was established in honor of the Amerindian cacique who ruled the valley; ''Cacique Upar''. T ...

, for the year's

Copa Colombia The Copa Colombia ( en, Colombia Cup, link=yes); officially known as Copa BetPlay Dimayor is an annual football tournament in Colombia. It is contested by the 36 professional clubs of DIMAYOR and is the nation's domestic cup competition, equiva ...

. Regularly used in the cup matches, Barrera was only promoted to the main squad midway through the 2014 campaign. He made his Categoría Primera A debut on 24 August of that year, replacing Jorge Ortega in a 1–0 away loss against

Independiente Medellín Deportivo Independiente Medellín, also known as Independiente Medellín or DIM, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellín that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at Estadio Atanasio Girardo ...

. Barrera scored his first senior goals on 27 August 2014, netting a brace in a 2–0 away defeat of Uniautónoma, for the season's national cup. His first league goal came eight days later, as he scored his team's third in a 4–3 home win against Atlético Huila. Barrera quickly established himself as a starter for the club in the following years, winning two national cups during the process. On 12 December 2018, in the second leg of the

2018 Copa Sudamericana Finals The 2018 Copa Sudamericana Finals was the two-legged final to decide the winner of the 2018 Copa Sudamericana, the 17th edition of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's secondary international club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. T ...

, he missed a

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

in the stoppage time which would have given his side a 2–1 lead over Athletico Paranaense; Junior lost the tournament in the shoot-outs, with Barrera being substituted off shortly after his missed penalty. Barrera joined

Tigres UANL Club de Fútbol Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, simply known as Tigres UANL or Tigres, is a Mexican professional football club based in San Nicolás de los Garza, a city in the Monterrey metropolitan area, Nuevo León. Found ...

on 1 January 2019, but only eight days later, he was loaned out to

Rosario Central Club Atlético Rosario Central () is a sports club based in Rosario, Argentina, that plays in the Argentine Primera División. The club was officially founded on December 24, 1889, by a group of railway workers, taking its name from the English- ...

in Argentina. The deal cost Rosario $200.000 and was without an option to buy.

International career

After representing Colombia at under-20 level, Barrera was called up by the full side's manager

José Pekerman José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...

for a training squad in February 2016. He appeared in two matches with the under-23 team, but was cut out from Carlos Restrepo's final 19-man list ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Personal life

Barrera is a relative of former footballer

Carlos Valderrama Carlos Alberto Valderrama Palacio (Colombian Spanish: ; born 2 September 1961), also known as ''El Pibe'' ("The Kid"), is a Colombian former professional footballer and sports commentator for Fútbol de Primera, who played as an attacking mid ...

Career statistics

Honours

Club

Atlético Junior *

: 2015,

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

* Categoría Primera A: 2018 Finalización

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrera, Jarlan 1995 births Living people Footballers from Santa Marta Colombian men's footballers Colombian expatriate men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Categoría Primera A players Atlético Junior footballers Tigres UANL footballers Rosario Central footballers Atlético Nacional footballers Liga MX players Argentine Primera División players Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Colombia men's youth international footballers Colombia men's under-20 international footballers Footballers from Magdalena Department