James Rodríguez was very close to reaching Atlético de Madrid. It was the year 2019 and the Colombian midfielder had been standing out in his second year with Bayern Munich, who was willing to buy him from Real Madrid, however, the footballer decided not to continue in Germany because his wish was to return to Spain, to be closer to his son Samuel, who has just been born.
The player already had everything ready to sign with Atleti and they simply needed to close the negotiations, however, It was Florentino Pérez, president of Madrid, who frustrated the transfer, so James returned to the club who owned his sports rights. The ’10’ recalled his failed step in a Twitch transmission with Ricardinho.
“I didn’t want to stay at Bayern Munich because I had the option of Atleti. I was going to be at home, my son had been born, it was a rather personal choice, but these are things that happen in football, they are decisions one makes. I had the option of Atleti, a good club, everything was ready, I was going to be closer to my son, I was at home. So I wanted to leave and that’s when the president (Florentino Pérez) didn’t let me leave, he practically screwed me a bit”, he stated.
Thus, James Rodríguez spent the 2019-2020 season at Real Madrid. The player played only 729 minutes in 14 games, in which he scored one goal and made two assists. The attacking midfielder was absent in 37 games, some of them due to ligament and hip injuries. In LaLiga Santander he was only an initialist in 4 commitments.
At the end of that season, the player left Real Madrid to sign for Everton where he only played for one year. Currently, the creation midfielder is in Greece playing at Olympiacos where he is one of the great figures of the team. 3 goals and 4 assists are his balance so far in 14 games played in the Greek Super League.
