The first goalscorer at a World Cup is rarely forgotten. Think of the Ecuadorian Enner Valencia and his brace against Qatar at the last edition, of Yury Gazinsky heading in against Saudi Arabia in Moscow in 2018, or of the iconic Siphiwe Tshabalala, whose thunderous left-footed strike opened the South African World Cup 16 years ago in a match between South Africa and Mexico. That game ended 1–1. Sixteen years later, at the Azteca, things unfolded differently. Mexico took the lead, dominated the opening match and cruised to a 2–0 win with barely a hint of effort.
The deadlock lasted only nine minutes before it was broken by Julián Quiñones. With that goal, he secured his place in Mexican football history, despite not being Mexican by birth. The Al-Qadsiah forward, a teammate of Mateo Retegui, was born in Colombia. He is one of nearly 300 players representing a country other than the one where they were born.
At 26, Quiñones found himself in an office of Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs. There, he received the naturalisation papers that made him eligible for La Tricolor. Born in March 1997 in a municipality in Colombia’s Nariño department, a region of mangrove forests and rivers overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Quiñones left home early in pursuit of a future in football, already possessing the physical attributes that hinted at significant potential.
He chose Mexico. His first stop was with Tigres de Nuevo León, but breaking into the first team proved more difficult than expected. He was sent on loan to Venados de Mérida in the second division, where he scored six goals in 20 appearances. The next step came with Lobos BUAP, and it marked the real turning point in his career: 16 goals and one assist in 28 matches, numbers that opened the door to top-flight football.
Spells with Atlas and América completed Quiñones’ footballing development, while he continued to score consistently in Liga MX. By then, two national teams were calling. Colombia, managed by the Argentine coach Néstor Lorenzo, wanted him, as did Mexico, then coached by Jaime Lozano, although he was not yet eligible to play.
It was 2023. Quiñones turned down Colombia and decided to wait. On 11 October he received the documents that formally completed his naturalisation. Nine days later, FIFA approved his change of association, and on 9 November Mexico announced his inclusion in the national-team squad with a welcome video.
His debut in green came during the same international window, in the Concacaf Nations League quarter-final against Honduras. In that very match, he also scored his first goal for Mexico.
In the summer of 2024, Quiñones moved to Saudi Arabia. Al-Qadsiah invested more than $16 million to sign him, a fee that became the most expensive transfer ever from Liga MX to a destination outside Europe. In Saudi Arabia, the Mexican-Colombian continued to produce numbers worthy of an international-level striker: 62 goals and 12 assists in 68 appearances, almost one direct goal contribution per game.
Those who spent months questioning his true value found their answer on the pitch, on a night destined to linger in the memory of the Azteca. His goal against South Africa was historic. Before Quiñones, only one naturalised player had ever scored for Mexico at a World Cup.
That player was Antonio Naelson Sinha, born in Brazil, in Itajá, Rio Grande do Sul, and the scorer of a goal at the 2006 World Cup, specifically in Mexico’s opening match against Iran.
Now, alongside Sinha’s name, there is also that of Quiñones.