Juan Estiven Vélez Upegui (born in

Medellín Medellín ( ; or ), officially the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of Medellín (), is the List of cities in Colombia, second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia Departme ...

, Antioquia. 9 February 1982) is a retired Colombian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 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 other ...

. In 2004, he made his debut with

Categoría Primera B Categoría Primera B, commonly referred to as Torneo BetPlay Dimayor due to Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is the second-division association football, football league in Colombia. The tournament was inaugura ...

club

Deportes Quindío Deportes Quindío is a Colombian professional 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 thei ...

. 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 am ...

. 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 HD FC (), formerly Ulsan Hyundai FC, 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 198 ...

, 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 located in Tokushima, capital of Tokushima Prefecture. The club currently playing in the J2 League, the Japanese second tier of professional football league. Name origin The name, "Vortis" was named in 19 ...

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 symbolic associations in religion, mythology, supers ...

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

Honours

;

;* Categoria Primera A: 2007 Finalizacion ; ; ;

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

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

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 SK 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 AFC Champions League Elite–winning players 21st-century Colombian sportsmen {{Colombia-footy-midfielder-stub