James Rodriguez used to be the guy that everyone couldn’t help but like. He was the breakout star of the 2014 World Cup. His goal against Uruguay, and subsequent celebration, showed he was a young man at once completely comfortable with his newfound stardom, and perfectly overwhelmed by it.
“He’s a star alright!” Jon Champion screamed that day, and there was no one in the world that would have dared argue with him. In Rodriguez, everyone saw the star they dreamed they could be.
Rodriguez would use his status and a certified superstar to secure a move to Real Madrid: the club that only dealt in stardom. He was wildly successful at first. In his first months at the club, Madrid won 22 straight games, a FIFA Club World Cup, and Rodriguez won the FIFA Puskas award for goal of the year for the above goal. Madrid may not have won the silverware that the heights it hit midyear may have promised, but things were certainly looking up for Rodriguez.
This season, however, things have taken a turn for the worse. Rodriguez has been left on the bench repeatedly under both Zinedine Zidane and, before Zidane, Rafa Benitez. Reports are coming out of Madrid that Zidane is “losing patience” with Rodriguez, and now Colombian journalist Ivan Mejia has criticized Rodriguez for losing “all sense of perspective.”
Mejia is a well known journalist in Colombia, and used a recent radio broadcast to share his opinion of the seemingly wayward Rodriguez.
“He’s in a a footballing decline, he’s not playing well,” said Mejia.
“The Madrid board are worried because he’s not that same James that arrived after the World Cup. He’s racing his car, he’s going out at night, he’s making appearances in Qatar…
“He’s lost all sense of perspective and isn’t training well.
“That Benitez left him on the bench is completely understandable. He, Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo dedicated themselves to sabotaging Benitez. He follows Cristiano and wants to be part of his group.
“He’s lost his humility, lamentably. If he doesn’t come back down to earth then he’ll become a flash in the pan.”
Mejia’s radio rant comes two and a half weeks after Rodriguez was caught speeding by Spanish authorities as he rushed to get to a practice he was late for. That day Rodriguez was clocked at 200 kph (124 mph).
If Mejia’s words are to be taken seriously, Rodriguez’s plunge from golden boy to has-been could be even faster than anyone would expect.
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