Walter Montillo

Walter Damian Montillo is a professional football player from Argentina who plays as a midfielder. Montillo began playing for the youth team at San Lorenzo where he would go on to make his professional debut in 2002. He began his five season stint quite slowly, barely making any appearances for the team at first and playing with the reserve line-up. However, as time went on, he created a place for himself with steady performances and, over the five year period, ended up with around 95 appearances as well as six goals to his name.

San Lorenzo would win the 2002 Copa Sudamericana title during his time with the team as well as the Torneo Clausura title in 2007, although Montillo would just play 6 games for the team that year.

Out of the time Montillo spent at San Lorenzo, 2006-07 was when he began losing his place in the side, once again, and decided to look for a loan move in order to play more regularly. He moved to Monarcas Morelia in Mexico, before returning to San Lorenzo, the following year, to complete his contract.

In 2008, Montillo moved to Chile and signed up with Universidad de Chile and his $1million price tag became the most expensive transfer for a Chilean team, ever. Even though Montillo signed a five-year contract with Universidad de Chile, he would only play for three seasons, notching up over 60 appearances and scoring 15 goals in the process, helping the club win the Torneo Apertura title in 2009. With his value considerable raised in the market, bigger teams came looking for his signature and, in 2010, Cruzeiro came to him with an offer that allowed him to come to Brazil. Since 2010, Montillo has been a permanent fixture in the starting line-up, scoring 19 goals in his 51 games so far. Montillo’s performances have earned him two consecutive Silver Ball or second-best player of the league awards while the club went on to win the 2011 Campeonato Mineiro title.

At the international level, Montillo got called up to represent his country at the Under-20 level. He earned 5 caps at the junior level before making his senior-team debut for Argentina against Brazil, in the mini tournament dubbed as the “Superclassico das Americas”.