James Rodriguez has been unveiled as a new Real Madrid player, becoming one of La Liga’s new stars. The Colombian seemed predestined to play in Spain sooner or later, since he was already close to signing for Espanyol back in 2010.
The Catalan club received reports that year of a young talented 18-year-old Colombian with a bright future who played for Banfield in the Argentinian league. That player was James Rodriguez, who caught the attention of Espanyol’s scouts when they saw him play live.
“James was not a regular starter at Banfield, but you could see he was a player with great quality and a bright future. That’s the profile Espanyol has to look for. When we spoke to Mauricio Pochettino, he saw two or three games and immediately gave the OK. He had an excellent technique. We wanted to make an important offer for him. Daniel Sanchez Llibre, the president back then, tried to make a bid,” Espanyol’s former sports director Ramon Planes recently explained in an interview with Esports en Xarxa.
However, a problem in the payment method prevented the transfer from becoming real: “He was very close to signing for Espanyol. Negotiation was in the final step. There was a economic agreement between the clubs and we had spoken several times with James. He was willing to come to Espanyol and La Liga. But there was a problem with the bank endorsements for the payment and a few days later he signed for Porto.”
The press reported back then that Espanyol, a club that didn’t have much economic strength, offered 2.5 million euros for 50% of the player’s rights. Banfield rejected that offer, but the Catalans, knowing James’ potential, increased the bid to 5.5 million for 100% of the rights.
Banfield accepted that proposal, but as Planes has already stated, there was still a disagreement over how to pay the money. The Argentinean club wanted the money in one payment whereas Espanyol were keen to pay over a period of time in various installments. While the La Liga club looked at options to finance the deal, Banfield released a story to the press saying an agreement was almost in place.
That prompted Benfica and Porto to try their luck and move for the Colombian and both clubs made offers significantly more than the one on the table from Espanyol. In the end, Jame Rodriguez ended up at Porto, the club that would be the stepping stone for his move to Monaco, who in turn were to be the stepping stone for his switch to Real Madrid.
espanyol should not regret the signing because they were unable to do the right things by paying the buying clause.