JOIN USStar hidden under Real wings
It was only two summers ago that James Rodríguez went to Brazil and pilfered the global spotlight from the more established stars assembled at the World Cup.
Wearing the No 10 jersey for Colombia, Rodríguez was marvellous, leading his team on a jubilant romp to the quarterfinals. He scored a tournament-best six goals, including two — a roguish toe-flick over a goalkeeper to cap a squiggly dribbling run, and a 180-degree-turning, left-footed volley walloped in from 25 yards — that offered particularly tantalising indications of an immense skill set.
Fans worldwide were charmed. In a recent interview, the BeIN Sport television commentator Ray Hudson gushed about Rodríguez’s “infinite spectrum of footballing ability.” Hudson praised Rodríguez’s range of passing, his balance, his wicked shot.
“He’s a balletic player, the type that would run on the sand and not leave footprints,” Hudson said. “I love James Rodríguez.”
Yet over the last two years, Rodríguez, 24, has largely been hidden from public view. At Real Madrid, the Spanish club he joined after the World Cup, his playing time seemed to diminish month by month. When Real Madrid won the Champions League last weekend, Rodríguez was an unused substitute; the closest he got to the field was during the celebrations after his team’s shootout victory.
The skills that can inspire such praise and hyperbole had been buried away, muted. “They ruin the best,” Hudson said about Real Madrid with a touch of sorrow in his voice.
All that makes the Copa América Centenario — which began with Rodriguez’s Colombia taking on the United States on Friday night — so intriguing for Rodríguez. After two years in which Rodríguez has faded from the spotlight while struggling with injuries and the whims of Real Madrid’s three most recent coaches, the Copa could represent a chance for him to leap back onto the world stage.
Rodríguez has much to prove. Two summers ago, he was leading synchronised dance celebrations at the World Cup. But the exuberance faded at Real Madrid, a club that still adheres to its notoriously garish business model, stocking its cupboard with famous players first and then improvising a system to deploy them.
In his first season there, playing under Carlo Ancelotti, Rodríguez appeared in 29 league games, recording 13 goals and 13 assists. It was a promising start. But this past season — first under Rafa Benítez, who replaced Ancelotti, then Zinedine Zidane, who succeeded Benítez in midseason — Rodríguez was mostly passed over in favour of star teammates.
Although he was often absent on the field, Rodríguez remained an active presence in the Spanish newspapers, with some speculating on his fitness level and his reported interest in the Madrid night life.
In January, he was chased by an unmarked police car after driving his Audi R8 more than 120 mph on his way to the team’s training centre. In April, he was embroiled in an odd controversy when television cameras captured him laughing on the bench while Real Madrid was losing a Champions League quarterfinal game.
Colombian soccer fans, for the most part, have stood behind him.
In recent years, the country has made huge progress in their player and team development — the Colombians are the No 3 team in the world, according to FIFA’s rankings — and Rodríguez remains the programme’s best ambassador, embodying the programme’s promise.
Oscar Pareja, the head coach of FC Dallas in Major League Soccer and a Colombia player in the 1990s, said Rodríguez was the headliner of a group of Colombian players now with European clubs, like Juan Cuadrado, David Ospina and Carlos Bacca.
“The presence of James in the national team was refreshing for the country, the soccer society,” Pareja said of Rodríguez’s emergence over the past few years. “James was the icon of the new generation that was giving us hope.”
Pareja said it was a “major thing” in Colombia that Rodríguez was playing for Real Madrid, one of the richest and most successful teams in the world. But he echoed the sentiments of many Colombians when he suggested, “for the good of the national team,” that Rodríguez needed to transfer to a different club.
His departure would most likely require an enormous fee — Real Madrid reportedly paid about $100 million to acquire Rodríguez from Monaco in 2014 — but many big clubs have been linked to him in the endless churn of the European soccer rumour mill. Manchester United and Juventus have repeatedly been cited as hypothetical destinations. One Spanish newspaper quoted an acquaintance saying that it had been Rodríguez’s childhood dream to play for Barcelona but that a switch there directly from Madrid would be highly unlikely. More stories were rolled out when Rodríguez’s wife mentioned that she liked living in Madrid.
The uncertainty about Rodríguez’s future has seemingly elevated the importance of the Copa América for his career. Big signing decisions in soccer have long been influenced by summer tournament hype. Back in the welcoming environment of the Colombian national team, he has every reason to try to put on a show.
His biggest admirers, deprived of his artistry on the field of late, are hoping he does just that.