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The players have returned to their clubs after the national team break and in England, all the focus is on Everton, Premier League leaders, and on its great figure, James Rodríguez, ahead of Saturday’s classic against Liverpool.
The Telegraph newspaper has taken on the task of rebuilding the career of the man who has been the sensation at the start of the season and has made an important revelation: before arriving at Everton, he could be a Manchester United and FC Barcelona player, who They had it in a folder but ended up discarding it.
It was 2010 and, according to Marcelo Teixeira, the club’s scout in South America, the southpaw was not well recommended to manager Sir Alex Ferguson: “He is not fast enough, he will probably have problems with the intensity of England and he is not suitable for this country. “said the report that came to him.
Teixeira, who worked with United between 2008 and 2011, affirms that the first person who saw him in Argentina was his colleague José Mayorga and that he was convinced that he could impose his game: “Mayorga always included James’s name in his reports, but the The club’s assessment was that his style of play did not suit the Premier League. Head scout Jim Lawlor considered other names like Maylson who now plays for Figueirense and Douglas Costa from Bayern Munich. “
The Telegraph states that the Manchester club was not the only one to be disenchanted: “United were not alone among elite clubs who considered James to be very inconsistent. Barcelona walked away from a deal four years before Real Madrid will hire him for 80 million euros, the fourth most expensive transfer of all time, “he says.
Doubts upon arrival in Everton
The source claims that even when he arrived in Everton, in the last summer market, his great track record did not prevent the comments from being more about Farhad Moshiri’s whim to have him at Goodison Park than about his quality.
“If it’s so good and available for £ 20 million, why haven’t any of the top six ever gone after it?” it was common, “says the newspaper, which took on the task of speaking with his first professional coach, Colombian Hugo Gallego, former Envigado DT, who made him debut in 2006 after seeing him shine in Pony Fútbol.
“I had my doubts,” Hugo Castaño said. “When you talk about the Premier League, you talk about a very dynamic football, almost without spaces, that does not let you breathe, much less think. But James surprises everyone, and I think he will continue in that way because his intelligence is far above any physical concern, “he explained, while recalling that his career was built from his childhood, that his family had him a physical trainer, a nutritionist and a complete training team in Ibagué because, unlike South American stars such as Carlos Tevez, he did not grow up in a difficult environment but became an elite athlete.
“Looking back, I don’t think James’ game has changed much,” says Teixeira, the former director of Brazil’s Fluminense academy, where Marcelo, Real Madrid or Fabinho came from Liverpool.
“James is obviously more mature, well-rounded and experienced, but his style of play is still pretty much the same. It has always been a pleasure to see him, he has a lot of quality and technique. Despite his age, he was already the star of a Banfield team that managed to secure a place in the Copa Libertadores. He was born for the big stages ”, he concluded.
