Juan Estiven Vélez Upegui (born in

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

, Antioquia. 9 February 1982) is a retired Colombian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

er. He played as a left back defender or defensive midfielder.

Club career

Born In Medellin, Velez began his career in the youth ranks of

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

. In 2004, he made his debut with

Categoría Primera B Categoría Primera B, commonly referred to as Torneo BetPlay Dimayor due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay (formerly ''Torneo Águila''), is the second-division football league in Colombia. Format DIMAYOR has applied a new forma ...

club

Deportes Quindío Deportes Quindío is a professional Colombian football club based in Armenia that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. The club was founded on 8 January 1951, and its best achievement was winning the 1956 league tournament. They play th ...

. In 2006, he joined

Deportivo Pereira Deportivo Pereira is a professional Colombian football team based in Pereira, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium. History Early years While there are several ...

. The following year, he joined Nacional, where he was part of the squad that won the 2007 Finalizacion. After a poor collective 2009 season, he left the club. In 2010, he joined South Korean club

Ulsan Hyundai Ulsan Hyundai FC ( ko, 울산 현대 축구단) is a South Korean professional football club based in Ulsan that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1983 as Hyundai Horang-i, they joined the K League in ...

, where he won the

2012 AFC Champions League The 2012 AFC Champions League was the 31st edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 10th under the current AFC Champions League title. Ulsan Hyundai from South Korea wo ...

, and playing the full 90 minutes in the 3-0 victory against Al-Ahli. He retired after the 2014-15 season, playing his final season with

Tokushima Vortis is a Japanese professional football club, currently playing in the J2 League. The team is located in Tokushima, Tokushima Prefecture. Their home stadium is Naruto Otsuka Sports Park Pocari Sweat Stadium, in Naruto, Tokushima. The name, "Vortis ...

in the Japanese League.

International career

He made his debut for the Colombia national team in 2006, and played in the

2007 Copa America 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

. He played for the national team from 2006 to 2008.

Honours

;

;* Categoria Primera A: 2007 Finalizacion ; ; ;

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

References

External links

* * * 1982 births Living people Colombian men's footballers Footballers from Medellín Colombian expatriate men's footballers Categoría Primera A players Deportes Quindío footballers Deportivo Pereira footballers Atlético Nacional footballers Ulsan HD FC players Jeju United FC players J1 League players J2 League players Tokushima Vortis players Vissel Kobe players K League 1 players Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea Colombia men's international footballers Colombian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football midfielders {{colombia-footy-bio-stub