The Luis Díaz Phenomenon: What are the Other Colombians Doing Abroad?

The desire for the "guajiro" Luis Díaz in all the leagues of Europe is clear. His success with Liverpool has led to rumors of his transfer to other prestigious clubs, such as Real Madrid. It's not for nothing, this has been an excellent season for the Reds player, who has racked up 3 goals in 5 Premier League appearances. Its popularity and its quality have caused that at this moment its market value is the highest it has had in history, approximately 65 million euros.

But apart from Luis Díaz, this year other Colombian soccer players abroad have not been noticed.

James Rodríguez- Disappeared from the planet

Let's start with, perhaps, the player who has fallen the most from glory: James Rodríguez. We only know about James that he is desperate to leave Al-Rayyan, so much so that the Colombian himself admitted that he would be willing to lower his salary if they took him to Valencia. Plagued by injuries, James has not been a factor for Al-Rayyan in any sense of the word during this 2022. In fact, his last official match was with the Colombian National Team on March 29 of this year, which explains the enormous decline at its market value. The one who was once the ace of the Colombian National Team, at this moment barely exceeds 13 million euros in the market.

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David Ospina- Chasing the money

On the other hand, David Ospina, following in the footsteps of James, decided to go to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia to play as a goalkeeper in that country. Although he did well in his recent debut, what we can highlight the most about the former captain of the Colombian National Team is his incredible salary with this team, a total of 3.5 million dollars. Although this is 2.1 million dollars more than Ospina earned at Napoli, the truth is that he suffers quite a reputational blow by deciding to compete in an unprestigious league just for money.

Duvan Zapata and Luis Muriel

Speaking of Serie A, Duván Zapata, an Atalanta player, who normally has a good season with this team, is injured again. At the end of last season he missed several games due to muscular problems and it seems that this time he will also have to face this ordeal. His health problems have reduced his market value from 33 million euros last year to 28 million euros this year.

Perhaps one of the few Colombians going through a positive moment abroad is Luis Muriel, also from Atalanta. The Colombian recently celebrated 100 games with the Bergamo team, an important mark without a doubt. In his time with this Italian team, Muriel has accumulated 129 games, 59 touchdowns and 21 assists. It is for this reason that its market value remains stable at 20 million euros.