The cameo that began Duran’s rise to ultimate super-sub

It says a lot that no one was surprised when Jhon Duran came off the bench, scored a stunning goal and delivered Aston Villa’s biggest European result in a generation.

There was poetry in beating Bayern Munich, the same side they toppled to lift the European Cup 42 years ago. In a different way, it was poetic Duran should be the man to score the winner.

It was the 20-year-old’s 14th goal for the club. He has still only made 11 starts. Duran’s proficiency is such that his Premier League minutes-per-goal ratio can only be matched by Erling Haaland.

And still, he can’t buy a start when Ollie Watkins is the man ahead of him.

He has unquestionably done enough to earn more than a solitary start against Wycombe Wanderers this season, but the Colombian is the master of his own downfall. He is just too good as a super-sub.

Of his 14 goals, 10 have come as a substitute. He is the ultimate bench player, already scoring winners against Everton, West Ham and now Bayern Munich this season. He played less than half an hour against each.

No one in Europe’s top-five leagues has scored as many goals from the bench in 2024/25.

Perhaps the ultimate poetry is that just one substitute appearance more than four years ago, when Duran was just 16, was enough to begin his journey to England’s top flight.

Former Blackburn defender Sebastian Pelzer, now Chicago Fire’s technical director, was in the stands at Envigado, one of Colombia’s top flight, to cast an eye over a young centre-back named Carlos Teran.

The defender made enough of an impression on the back of existing scouting reports that the club signed him a year later. But it was a late cameo from an unknown striker which really caught Pelzer’s attention.

From the moment he came on, you could see he was an interesting player,” Pelzer told Sky Sports. “He was already physically developed, but also had that movement, that acceleration.

“He had a certain maturity in his playing style, even from his young age. It was very impressive. If a 16-year-old comes on and stands out in such a short period of time, that moment was enough to be convinced.

“You have to have the imagination of what a player could be if they progress; I used my experience from playing in England to think, even then, he could be a Premier League player.”

Pelzer thought he had unearthed a hidden gem but two weeks later, Duran featured in The Guardian’s 60 best young talents in world football, alongside Jamal Musiala and Xavi Simons. All of a sudden, everything changed.

“We had to really speed things up from then,” Pelzer said. “Now there were other teams in Europe interested in bringing him in, with a track record already.

“But we managed it well to get his signing over the line in the end.”

In January 2021, Fire signed Duran – but they could not add him to their roster until he turned 18 the following December, so he stayed with Envigado for another year.

Eager to still harness his young talent, Pelzer sanctioned individual coaching alongside his club commitments. He calls it a good investment – and it was one Fire would only make for a player they especially valued.

“We wanted to prepare him properly for the MLS. It’s a physical league, the demands are different than in Colombia,” Pelzer explained. “The way he developed during that time was really impressive.

“You could see him getting better and better, and he had a willingness to progress. There was a diamond coming out, and when he arrived in Chicago he was in very good shape.”

Duran had become a man in age and stature. Head coach Ezra Hendrickson was impressed enough to hand him his MLS debut in Fire’s first game of the 2022 season, a 0-0 draw at Inter Miami.

“My first impression was that we had a very, very talented player who could reach the highest level,” Hendrickson told Sky Sports. “He’s a physical freak of nature; he’s big, strong, fast and can finish.”

In maturity, there was still a way to go. As there would be for most young adults having their world uprooted weeks after their 18th birthday.

Duran’s teenage temper got the better of him. He was booked seven minutes into his debut and again in his second game. It left Hendrickson wary of handing him a first start – and when he did, Duran picked up two yellows and was sent off.

Things could’ve turned sour as his temperament raised questions about whether he could be trusted.

Instead, Hendrickson put an arm around him. Fire’s players were soon joking that they were father and son.

It was worth it – Fire were rewarded with eight goals and three assists in the rest of the season, almost the equivalent of a goal contribution every 90 minutes.

Sometimes a culture shock can be too heavy for young players to adapt,” Hendrickson said. “It’s a catch-22 sometimes with young players. You can see the talent, you want to get them on the pitch but immaturity ends up costing the team.

“Jhon could have started his first game for us about a month sooner than he did. He was like a son to me, his team-mates would call him that.

“I would bring him into the office often and talk about his inconsistencies in training – sometimes he wouldn’t listen to anyone but me. I had to make sure that changed, because I wanted him to listen to the assistant coaches as well.

“He was a good kid, he just needed some direction and an authority figure to make sure he reached his potential.”

Pelzer and Hendrickson hoped unearthing Duran’s potential would take long enough that they would at least have another year from their burgeoning talent.

But by the end of 2022, the widespread interest from across Europe made clear that wasn’t going to happen.

Aston Villa pushed the hardest to sign him, and impressed both Duran and his agent with a seven-minute compilation of his best bits from Chicago and Colombia to convince him just how aware they were of his talents.

It has taken time for Duran to show signs that he does have that Premier League potential which originally drew in Pelzer. That temperament again threatened to derail his rise, with Unai Emery hinting at frustrations with his attitude in the early months of last season.

The protracted non-move to West Ham this summer, and the ‘hammers’ gesture on his social media interpreted as a mark of disrespect to Villa’s fans, could have been the final straw.

But all has been forgiven after his recent run. There have been too many starring cameos for this to be just a purple patch.

“He was completely convinced to get here and stay here with us,” Emery told Sky Sports recently. “We are trying to get the best of him both as a person and a player. His potential is there.

“If you watch the matches he plays here, the goals he scores here, the process he is doing here, maybe you can think like me as well. His potential is a big potential.

“My responsibility, and my challenge, is to exploit it.”