Following Marco Asensio‘s injury, Real Madrid have taken the decision to keep Colombian forward James Rodriguez at the club…
In Real Madrid’s pre-season match against Arsenal, Marco Asensio was stretchered off the pitch after he injured his knee. The club later revealed that the winger had suffered a rupture to the ACL and external meniscus in his left knee, potentially puting an end to the Spaniard’s season. With Gareth Bale‘s future uncertain at the club, it’s up to Los Blancos to make a decision regarding whether or not to keep James Rodriguez at the club. The Colombian is linked to a move to Napoli and Atletico Madrid and had been expected to leave Santiago Bernabeu this summer.
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James spent the last two seasons on loan at Bayern Munich where he contributed to 35 goals in 67 appearances for the club. The attacking midfielder looked set to join forces with Napoli manager Carlo Ancelotti, who bought the 2014 World Cup Golden Boot winner to Real Madrid and then subsequently took him on loan at Bayern Munich. Marca also reported that Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo was interested in signing James. However, with the long line of injured players at Real Madrid even before the season has started, its highly likely that the Colombian star will work with Zinedine Zidane for the 2019-20 campaign.
As per AS, Real Madrid’s humiliating 7-3 loss to Atletico Madrid in the International Champions Cup and Marco Asensio’s injury which will see the winger miss majority of the upcoming season has prompted Real Madrid president Florentino Perez to take the decision to keep James Rodriguez at the club despite Zidane wanting to sell the player. James returned to training with Los Blancos on Monday for the first time after his two year stint at Bayern Munich. Under Carlo Ancelotti, James was a beast at Real Madrid where he scored 17 goals and assisted 18 in all competitions in 2014-15. But his downfall at Madrid started after that and he was left on the bench for the Champions League final in 2017 by Zinedine Zidane.
AS also report that Perez would not be willing to sell James to Atletico given the fact that they already sold Marcos Llorente to their rivals and a former Los Blancos player, Alvaro Morata, also plays for the Rojiblancos. This would mean that only a team outside of Spain would be able to sign the Colombian with Napoli being the most likely destination however given the turn of events for Los Blancos, the decision to keep James at the club seems to have been made.
Can James Rodriguez recreate the same magic for Real Madrid as he did in 2014-15 under Carlo Ancelotti?