Prodigy who roomed with Bellingham eyes revival under Maradona’s son

On the streets they call him ‘Kego’. The one-time wonderkid left to train alone in a concrete wilderness of city towerblock staircases. A cage footballer for hire, a pick-up game artist on speed dial. The embers of his professional dream still flickering in a footballing underworld.

Kevin Gonzalez Quintero was once Jude Bellingham’s England room-mate, played in the same youth teams as Jamal Musiala and Harvey Elliott and was the guy a young Jhon Duran would ask for boots.

“Jude, he is a great lad,” remembers Kego. “He is very chill, a great person on and off the pitch. You can see why he is where he is today. Since that very young age he has had that leadership. Very mature.”

His father once played for Deportivo Cali, but Kego’s parents packed up and left a Colombia that he says was in the grip of Pablo Escobar and the nation’s drug cartels to swap South America for a new life in south London before he was born.

That allowed Kego to shine in front of Crystal Palace scouts, joining the Eagles aged eight and later winning their academy player of the year.

After a decade with Palace he believed he was destined for the Premier League and life on the international stage. As well as England, Kego represented Colombia at youth level.

“It was a dream,” he says. “I always wanted to play for Colombia. Duran was there with me. He is a funny guy.

“He has always been good, but he wasn’t banging in goals like that. Which shows his dedication, his time. It worked out for him. I’m very happy for him, too. He deserves it, I saw how hard it was for him.

“I remember him asking me for football boots. Just seeing him now is like ‘wow, you have grown so much and I am proud of you, man’.”

Those players have gone on to represent some of the world’s biggest clubs – Bellingham at Real Madrid, Musiala at Bayern Munich and Elliott at Liverpool, while former Aston Villa striker Duran is making his fortune in Saudi Arabia.

But for Kego, it didn’t work out like that.

He was released by Palace at 18 and, via false dawns and broken promises, spent four years travelling the world, trialling in 14 different countries, yearning for a professional contract.

“I thought I was going to have the world at my feet,” says the now 22-year-old. “I played with Colombia, I played with England. I was at Palace for 10 years. I was pretty sure I’d get a club, easily, but then I got exposed to the real world, quickly.”

So what went wrong for Kego at Crystal Palace? He was offered an extension, he says, but it did not materialise.

“I got different advice that I shouldn’t have listened to,” recalls Kego. “Two months later, they just told me ‘Look, Kevin, we’re not going to guarantee you any game time for next year, you’re better off looking for other teams. You’re a very good player, we believe you can start your professional career elsewhere’.

“I was very down, 10 years here and then just like that, gone.

“A few agents, they lied to me. Saying ‘listen, we have got this club for you and this club’. They sell you the world. But when it came to the time, nothing happened. That was really upsetting.”

He was caught in a spiral of failed trials and wasted journeys – Hungary, Spain, even Brazil.

“Before you know it, you’re six months without a club, then a year, then it carries on going,” adds Kego. “They start questioning your ability. Often I heard from clubs ‘Oh, but he’s been out for six months, oh, two years now’.

“Then when I did get the chance, I would be so mentally drained, to the point I couldn’t focus. And when I was there, there would be another agent telling me ‘listen, I’ve got you a first-team game’.

“I went to another team in Spain. The agent sorted the travel and everything, but when I got there, he blocked me. I didn’t hear from him again and I was left stranded.”

At the same time, his mum became seriously ill and needed the support of Kego and his father.

“Seeing your mum, the person that raised you, when she’s ill, that kills you as a son,” he says. “She is still recovering, she has days that are good and days that are bad. We are getting there.”

To stay prepared for an opportunity, Kego would train relentlessly on his own.

“It almost felt like a prison cell,” he explains. “You wake up, you train, you see the same surroundings over and over again. Four years, the same thing.

“I would wake up, I would see bricks, blocks. It’s mad. Going from seeing grass, everything is cut for you, you have got new balls – now I am maybe playing with a flat football, playing with a tennis ball or a golf ball.

“It’s called the towerblock in my area. Every day I would be running up the stairs, training with my dad. I would even go to the park, on an 11-a-side pitch, I would start passing the ball to imaginary team-mates and then I would go and chase after the ball myself. It wasn’t easy, but you have to work with what you have.”

But it was not just a physical battle. He could eat well and run until the sun came up – and friends say they would get calls at 4am to do just that – but mentally, with no end in sight, the churn was taxing.

“When you’re not at a team you’re getting frustrated because you know your talent, you know that you can do that, that you’re a good player, you have played with the best before,” says Kego. “Mentally it is killing you.”

Kego says he went “deep inside my mind”. He tried new things – he practises Simran meditation and, as a Christian, studies the Bible and prays.

But he also found salvation on the streets, with a ball at his feet.

“Street football is what gives you that tempo,” he beams. “Short spaces. You have got to think quick. It really helped me. It gave me a lot of confidence. I was like ‘you know what, if I can do it in this short space, imagine a bigger space’.”

Kego built a reputation in cage tournaments and pick-up games, becoming renowned in street football circles and even earning a deal with Puma.

“Everyone knew if they wanted to win with style, call him,” laughs Gundeep Anand, the founder of street football tournament The Last Stand.

It was in one such tournament Kego was spotted by Spanish side UD Ibarra, and suddenly the dream was revived.

Ibarra, from Tenerife, play in the fifth tier but are pushing for promotion and showing ambition. They recently appointed Diego Maradona Jr as head coach.

“He passed the ball to me and I said ‘what, wait, [it’s like] his dad is passing the ball to me’,” Kego remembers of their first meeting on the training pitch. “It’s a bit mad. I was watching his dad’s YouTube videos and then his son is passing the ball to me.

“The way they walk, they have a similar look. It’s very motivating.”

The forward is waiting to make his debut and Maradona Jr is keen to see the youngster kickstart his career in the Canary Islands.

“We needed a player like him,” he says. “Quick. Good technically, and had some experience in professional teams like Crystal Palace, the Colombian national team.

“He can bring speed to the game. A player who can score many goals and who understands the game.

“We hope he can bring a different mentality that we are trying to change with the team and the club.”

Kego describes joining Ibarra as “relief”. Now, he says, “it’s time to shine”.

“I was buzzing, excited, very emotional as well,” he adds.

“All these years of work, I would never have thought I would make it pro at 22. If I’m honest, I said let me just dedicate myself to playing street football.”

That is one dream accomplished, but what comes next?

“I always think big,” he smiles. “Short term is smash it here, do my best, focus and try and get many goals and get the club promotion.

“Longer term… I want to be the best player in the world one day.”