Is James Rodríguez’s Career On The Decline?

James Rodríguez is one of the most recognized and loved Colombian players by the inhabitants of the coffee country. Since the 2014 World Cup, when he was the top scorer in the World Cup in Brazil (six goals), he won the hearts not only of soccer fans in his country but worldwide. However, in recent years it could be argued that the 30-year-old Colombian's career is in decline.

Let's see why this is the case.

Fall in market price

There is perhaps a no better indicator of a player's decline than his market value. In the case of James, although he had a hard fall at one point in his career, he managed to recover, but since 2018 this statistic has gone down.

The highest value that James has had in both peaks of his career (July 2015 and July 2018) is 80 million euros. However, this value has plummeted during his stints at Real Madrid and Everton. At this time, According to Transfermarkt, James has a market value of 28 million euros, less than what he had in his first season at Monaco (32 million euros).

The numbers don't lie

It's been a long time since James had a successful season.

It could be argued that his best performance was in the 2014/2015 season, with Real Madrid, in which he scored 13 goals and 13 assists in 29 games.

In this last season with Everton, a decrease in production has been noticed. Although it is true that he has not played for four months, it is important to mention that in the 23 games (1,776 ') that he has played, he has barely achieved 6 goals and 5 assists.

If you think that we are making an unfair comparison, you only have to look at the 2017/2018 season, when he played for Bayern Munich (where he was twice champion). James, playing the same number of games (23) with fewer minutes (1,623 '), got 11 assists and 7 goals that season.

Also read: Falcao at Rayo Vallecano: the return of a tiger to Spain

It is normal that it is no longer the same

An undeniable factor that explains James' decline is his age. At the age of 30, James has already passed his athletic peak by far, which for the vast majority of footballers is between the ages of 25 to 27, according to the study “When do soccer players peak? A note ”published in the 2016 Journal of Sports Analytics.

According to the latest data that LatinAmerican Post was able to obtain, the transfer of James from Everton to the Al Rayyan club in Qatar has already been confirmed, a league without a doubt much less competitive than the Premier League.

The move to this involves a significant blow to James' visibility and marks what could be the early twilight years of his career. However, we hope that he can make a triumphant return to his new team, perhaps in a less leading role, but one that fills him with titles.