By Jorge Hernandez
Aug 26, 2024, 6:46 PM EDT
The Colombian James Rodriguezwho this Monday became a new footballer of the Rayo Vallecano, He will not make his debut with the Madrid team in Tuesday’s league match against FC Barcelonacorresponding to the third day of LaLiga.
With his signing for Rayo, James, who was named best player at the last Copa América, returns to the Spanish League, a championship he held for several seasons with Real Madrid (2014-2017 and 2019/2020); however, he will not be in one of the most important matches for his team in the campaign.
The team’s coach, Íñigo Pérez, was in charge of confirming the news and explaining the reason.
“We have to wait a bit because he has just rested after finishing the Copa América late.but we are very happy with his arrival,” said Pérez, at the press conference prior to the match against Barcelona.
Regarding the player that the club has just signed, the coach was happy and excited because he will have a versatile player who could cover him well in any area of the midfield.
“James can play in all three attacking midfields. He has done best as a playmaker, but he can also play as an eight.”He will do well in any position,” said the Spanish coach, who last season had another renowned Colombian player, Radamel Falcao, in his ranks.
“My experience with people who have achieved a lot, most recently Falcao, is that there are two ways. Either they are inaccessible to others or they do not fail on either a sporting or human level. If he is here it will be the second way,” he confessed.
James Rodríguez was born on 12 July 1991 in Cúcuta (Colombia). He made his professional debut with Envigado in May 2006, and moved to Argentine club Banfield in 2008, where he became the youngest foreign player to debut and score a goal in Argentina’s top flight at the age of 17.
In 2010 he made the leap to Europe to join Porto in Portugal, where he stayed for three seasons and coincided with his compatriots Radamel Falcao and Freddy Guarin, and then at Monaco, where he played for just one season (2013-2014).
Real Madrid was his next destination, from 2014 to 2020, although he spent two seasons on loan at Bayern Munich in Germany (2017-2019), where he coincided with Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti, one of the coaches during his time at Real Madrid and current Real Madrid coach, who counted on him when he left for Everton in 2020.
He was part of the English club’s squad from September 2020 to September 2021, when he moved to the Qatari league to play for Al Rayyan.
Greek club Olympiacos (2022-23) and Brazilian club Sao Paulo (2023-2024) were his last destinations before returning to the Spanish capital to be part of Rayo in its centenary season.
*With information from EFE.
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