Juan Gallego

Juan Gallego is a goalkeeper who has spent his career so far inside a single club. The Manizales-born stopper moved through Once Caldas's youth ranks, where he appeared for the Sub-19 side in the Supercopa Juvenil Colombia before earning a place among the club's senior goalkeepers.

Records differ on when that step took place. Once Caldas is listed as having tied him to a contract in mid-2022, while other sources place his arrival in the first team at the start of 2024 — a discrepancy that likely reflects the gap between a youth-squad signing and an actual senior debut. What is clear is that his first appearance in the Categoría Primera A, Colombia's top flight, came in 2024, marking the point at which the academy product finally reached the level the club had been developing him for.

At 191cm, Gallego has the physical profile clubs look for between the posts, and his path has been the conventional one for a homegrown goalkeeper: years in the academy, a run through the youth national competitions, then a first taste of senior football with the only club he has known.