James Rodríguez is no longer able to compete in elite football, having started an irreversible decline with his move to Everton.
That’s according to journalist Carlos Antonio Vélez, who believes the midfielder is now finished at the higher levels of football.
Rodríguez is currently playing for Olympiacos in Greece after joining them on a free transfer from Al-Rayyan in September last year.
He’s done relatively well at the Greek side, bagging five goals and six assists in 23 games this season but has found himself coming under criticism after a recent defeat to Panathinaikos in the Greek Super League playoffs.
That saw him left out of the squad for the second leg of their semi-final clash with AEK Athens in the Greek Cup, with claims he was suffering from physical issues leading to further criticism and questions being asked by the fanbase.
It now seems the Colombian will leave the Greek giants at the end of the season, which would be a continuation of the path Rodríguez has been treading in recent years.
This story was certainly one that was played out at Everton, where he initially arrived to much fanfare and established himself as a star with a series of impressive performances before his fitness caught up with him and he spent most of the season out of Carlo Ancelotti’s team.
That led to some criticism in and around Goodison Park, particularly as Everton’s season waned, and the Blues eventually decided to cut their losses and move him on to Al-Rayyan.
It now seems history is repeating itself in Greece but Vélez believes it is just the latest part of a decline that started with his move to Everton.
“We look with concern at the issue of James Rodríguez who’s level in the last game was really low,” Infobae report him saying.
“He is rated much worse by the Greek media. The press, which was so generous and gave him labels that he didn’t deserve, has now come down hard on him.
“Since he left Real Madrid, winning the Champions League without playing a single minute in important matches, the decline began. Then came Qatar and now Greece.
“They have taken him on a walk to keep him alive in terms of the Colombian national team, but he is no longer in a position to compete in elite football, even if that is very painful for the ‘James lovers’.
“Nobody accepts his reality, nobody accepts his mediocrity, nobody accepts his poverty. Everyone tries to inflate a balloon and become what they are not.
“There comes a professional moment when you have to make decisions. I don’t know if someone will come along later and inoculate him with the serum, he needs to produce what he once did, but at the moment he is a player who can wander and float around in a small league, nothing more.”
