James Rodríguez, a Colombian midfielder who now plays for Olympiacos in Greece, spoke to Ricardinho, a Portuguese futsal star, on Twitch about the reasons why he eventually joined Al-Rayyan, a football club from Qatar.
After playing for Everton in England, James went through two clubs. He lasted one year in Al-Rayyan (2021 to 2022). He has been with Olympiacos since last year. For the man born in Cúcuta, his physical problems, finances and his desire to play another World Cup (Qatar 2022) were the triggers that led him to make the decision to go to the Middle East.
“The Qatar thing was because at Everton the coach (Rafael Benitez) no longer wanted me. I had physical problems. At the time the European clubs said to me ‘come on, but we’re not going to give you a salary like you have now’. Al-Rayyan-ding was for the World Cup,” the flyer said about his departure from the ‘Toffees’.
“In Colombia it is a pity that we were left out of the World Cup by one point, everything was against me. I didn’t go to Qatar for a lot of money. I wanted to play and I said I’m going to play there for four or five months, I’ll play the World Cup and then I can leave,” added the player who started his career in Envigado.
Finally, James Rodríguez made statements about his current situation in Greece: “I feel good. I’m doing well, I’ve already played 18 games without any physical problems. The numbers are good, they could be a little better, but you don’t know the goals that stopped me. All those goalkeepers against me are Neuer and the one I used (goal passes), my teammates unfortunately failed a lot”.
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
