Uncertain future of James

WHAT started in the warm afterglow of Brazil 2014, being paraded at the Santiago Bernabeu, ends in Cardiff, sat in the stands.

James Rodriguez was the Crown Prince of football. He had outshone Neymar in what was supposed to be his World Cup and the world was at his feet. But it has gradually swallowed him up.

It is hard to put a finger on exactly what went wrong for James at Real Madrid beyond the obvious. He was never needed.

There was never a place for him and while he was the shiniest toy in Florentino Perez’s playroom when he arrived, at least the other toys had a role.

The defining moment of the Colombian’s time in Madrid has proven to be the first clasico under Rafael Benitez.

A spate of injuries had helped Rafa stumble across an effective formation with Casemiro anchoring the midfield, but despite only losing his first game as Real Madrid coach just before the November international break, Barcelona’s visit on the other side of that fortnight became a pressure point.

Benitez had lost one game, remember. But there were accusations of him being too conservative, of not playing the Madrid way. Rafa had a choice.

Only he didn’t. Every fibre of his being told him to play Casemiro but Florentino Perez told him to play James Rodriguez and so, inevitably, James started.

Madrid were humiliated. A 4-0 defeat on home soil that was not the Colombian’s fault but had served to single him out as the president’s pet, highlight just how much he didn’t fit and place him at the eye of an ever-increasing storm.

By the time Rafa was ushered out the side door and Zinedine Zidane had come in, James was a fixture on the substitute’s bench. He never established himself as a starter under the Frenchman who had been his idol as a child, and off-the-field issues began to poison the Madrid public against him.

The more Madrid would win without him, the less he was thought about.

Not even falling out of favour, James has spent the last few months falling out of mind.

Isco – who has been in a similar position at times, frustrated by a lack of game-time despite his obvious talent – has forced his way back into contention by working hard on the training ground and becoming the flexible, polyvalent glue that this Madrid side needed. James, limited in where and how he can play, has remained on the fringes.

Given an unusually long ovation as he left the field during the home game against Sevilla, the insinuation was obvious.

That was to be James’ last home match in a Madrid shirt but, little did he know, he would play just 24 more minutes for the club he’d always dreamed of joining.

His future now is uncertain, except for the fact that he will leave Madrid.

The afterglow of Brazil has faded, his light has gone out.

A team in need of a spark will no doubt take the plunge, but the question that remains is whether someone can reinvigorate football’s former Crown Prince and return him to royalty. – The Independent