Juan Cuadrado: History Repeats Itself in Colombia: “The Traitor Is Back”
Juan Cuadrado is a soccer player with an exceptionally impressive trophy collection, having won the Serie A title six times, the Coppa Italia four times, and also a Premier League title while playing for Chelsea. His career, however, has been marked by a series of club switches that have infuriated numerous fan bases: consider his move to Juventus in 2015 after two and a half seasons with Fiorentina (with his stint in London in between), and then his signing with Inter in 2023 after leaving the Bianconeri as a free agent. This pattern is repeating itself even after his return to his homeland, as the winger is now back in Colombia—but playing for Millonarios of Bogotá rather than Independiente Medellín, where he grew up and made his mark on the international soccer scene. And his former fans didn’t take it well, especially considering that a return seemed far from impossible.
The fact is that, in the meantime, the fourth matchday of Colombia’s top league featured none other than Independiente vs. Millonarios, and even more than the final 2-2 score, Cuadrado’s presence in the visitors’ starting lineup made headlines. It was too much for the Medellín crowd, who not only booed him throughout his time on the field (which ended after about an hour of play) but also displayed a banner that could not have been clearer: “Today, Judas, the traitor, has come back to visit us.” And the winger—who also played for Atalanta and Pisa in Serie A—commented on the incident after the match: “Sometimes people don’t understand, but these things happen in soccer. I had the chance to come back here too, but in the end, a real offer never came. Anyway, I feel really happy and content just the way things are.”
This isn’t the first time Cuadrado has found himself at the center of controversy over transfer decisions deemed “betrayals” by fans. The most famous case remains his move to Inter in the summer of 2023, after eight years and over 300 appearances in a Juventus jersey. Juventus supporters especially couldn’t forgive him for jumping up and down during Inter’s Scudetto celebration, when the Colombian didn’t hesitate to join in the chant “Whoever doesn’t jump is a Juventus fan” on the open-top bus in Milan. This incident prompted thousands of Juventus fans to sign a petition on change.org to remove his jersey from the JMuseum. Even in that case, however, Cuadrado has always rejected the accusation of betrayal: “After eight years, I was a free agent, and many considered my move to Inter a betrayal. But when you’re out of a job, you have to look for other options. I didn’t want to leave: they’d offered me a contract extension, but then they didn’t follow through.”
After all, Cuadrado’s career in Italy tells the story of a player capable of constantly reinventing himself. After his troubled stint at Inter—marred by numerous physical issues that limited him to just 150 minutes in league play spread across seven appearances—the Colombian found new life at Atalanta, where he made a total of 32 appearances. Then, in the summer of 2025—at the ripe age of 37—he chose to get back in the game by signing with newly promoted Pisa, which thus became his seventh Italian club. In total, during his very long career in Serie A, Cuadrado made 414 appearances, scoring 44 goals and providing 69 assists.
His return to Colombia, which came to fruition this summer with his signing for Millonarios, has brought a 17-year journey full circle. Cuadrado left Europe for the first time since 2009, when he had left Independiente Medellín to join Udinese and embark on his long Italian adventure. A journey that, in addition to his successes in Serie A, saw him establish himself with the Colombian national team, for which he has made 116 appearances—third all-time in the history of the Cafeteros, behind James Rodríguez and David Ospina — 11 goals and two bronze medals at the Copa América, in 2016 and 2021.
