James Rodriguez from childhood to World Cup 2014

James David Rodríguez Rubio was born on July 12th 1991 to Wilson James Rodriguez Bedolla and Maria Del Pilar Rubio. Brought up in the city of Ibague Rodriguez was actually named after James Bond. His father was a footballer also, but was largely absent so his godfather Juan Carlos Restrepo to look out for him.
His career started in 2006 with a second division Colombian club Envigado FC where he made the 2007 ascent. Spotted by Gustavo Adolfo Upegui Lopez, jailed for 21 months in 1998, at the championships James was poached from Academia to join Envigado, a club where he was chief shareholder.

He became the youngest foreign player to ever play in the Argentine league and went on to explode on to the consciousness of many in the country with a string of impressive displays.
In 2008, he was signed by Argentine team Club Atlético Banfield and he made his debut on 7th February 2009. He scored a winning goal against Newell's Old Boys in a 2-1 victory which helped Banfield win the Argentine Championship for the first time in clubs history and he was entitled as the 'James Bond of Banfield'. His playing style after that was linked to that of Cristiano Ronaldo by many.

In summer of 2010 James signed a 4-year-deal with Porto and he joined Porto that way for a transfer fee of €5.1 million and his release clause was set at €30 million.
Rodríguez also scored a hat-trick in 2011 Taça de Portugal Final against Vitória de Guimarães in a 6–2 win of Porto, while also assisting a goal in the same game.  He scored scored six goals and assisted eight times in 24 apps for Porto in the first season. In June he again signed a new 5-year-deal with Porto setting his release clause at €45 million.
In 2011, Rodríguez won the LPFP Award for Breakthrough Player of 2011–12 Primeira Liga season at age 20, becoming the first Colombian player to do so. He is a two-time winner of the SJPF Player of the Month. Rodríguez won the Portuguese Golden Ball award in 2012, becoming the second Colombian after Radamel Falcao to win the award, as well as being the youngest player ever to hold the honour.
In the 2011–12 season, Rodríguez scored 14 goals for Porto and delivered 11 assists.
In the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League group stage, he scored against French club Paris Saint-Germain in a 1–0 victory allowing Porto to top their current group. A few days later, Rodríguez scored a penalty against rivals Sporting CP. In just the first month of the 2012–13 season, Rodríguez had won the SJPF Player of the Month award for his impressive feat.

Despite an exit in the Champions League by the hands of Malaga, interestingly Rodríguez went on to become the second most fouled player in the tournament of the 2012–13 season. Manchester United reportedly made a bid for 30 million euros to purchase Rodriguez, but it was rejected by Porto for the offer was considered to be 'too low'. In the final match of the season against Paços de Ferreira, Rodríguez helped assure that Porto would win its third consecutive league title after being tripped inside the box and securing a penalty that was later scored thus providing the assist.  He finished the season scoring 10 goals and providing 13 assists in just 24 appearances, his highest ratio in providing goals (scoring and assisting them) in a single season to date. In general, he scored 13 goals and provided 15 assists within 32 appearances in all competitions for Porto of the 2012–13 season. Winning the league title meant that Rodríguez won his eighth trophy since joining Porto in 2009, just after three seasons spent in Europe and at only 21 years of age. Rodríguez went on to say that he was content with what he had achieved with Porto and would like to move into another 'big club' to seek a new challenge for himself.

With that said by him Monaco rushed to sign the player at any cost and thus on 24 May 2013, it was announced that Rodríguez had joined French side AS Monaco for a transfer fee of €45 million thus making it the second most expensive transfer in Portuguese football, behind former teammate Hulk. He signed a five-year contract keeping him at the club until 2018. This made him not only one of the most expensive transfers in the club's history, but in Ligue 1 history as well, along as the one of the highest in world football.
In the qualifying rounds for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, James assisted two goals in a row from a 1–0 winning start, to a 3–0 winning game that eventually ended 4–0 against Uruguay. Rodríguez scored a stunning goal from a 30-yard free kick against Chile leveling the game to an eventual 3–1 away victory boosting Colombia to a second place position in the qualifying stages. In the match against Paraguay, Rodriguez set up the plays leading towards both goals in a 2-0 victory. He scored the only goal against Ecuador and Peru in the final stages of the qualifying rounds which saw a victory to Colombia and also drew both penalties against Chile that equalized the match from 3-1 to 3-3 and Colombia were back in the World Cup in 16 years.

At the World Cup James has scored 5 goals in 4 games and assisted twice and was named Man Of The Match FOUR times(!). And he's only 22 years old. He has scored against Ivory Coast, Japan, Greece and Uruguay at the World Cup 2014. Only 12 players have managed to score in their first 4 World Cup games and the last one was Veiri of Italy in 1998 until James scored a brace against Uruguay to knock them out of the World Cup and get his name written in history. James has contributed the most goals (7 goals. 5 goals + 2 assists) in this (2014) World Cup than any other player, followed by Muller (5 goals. 4+1) & Benzema (5 goals. 3+2). In their first 4 World Cup games Pele scored 6 and assisted 1. Cyruff scored 2 and assisted 2. Maradona scored 2 and assisted 0. James has scored 5 goals and assisted 2. There are only 5 South Americans to be involved in 7+ goals in their first 4 World Cup matches and James Rodriguez is one of them along with Stábile, Ademir, Ghiggia & Pelé.


James' mother said : "I know a lot about football. I like Real Madrid in Spain, Bayern in Germany & Man City in England. I do not like the French or Italian and every weekend we spend the day watching games in different leagues. I confess that I would give anything to see my son play number 10 with Los Morengues, I'm a Real Madrid fan."

James himself said : "It'd be a dream to play in Spain. One of the best leagues in the World. I prefer Real Madrid over Barcelona in La Liga." In 2010 James stated : "Cristiano Ronlado is my idol and it would be a dream to play alongside him." On April 29th (2014) James posted a picture of him with Cristiano on twitter and wrote "A phenomenon of football, as always very gentle."

James Rodriguez married Daniela Ospina at the age of 19, she was 18 years old at that time. They have a son, Salome.
James and Ospina with their son Salome (left). Cristiano Ronaldo and Salome (right).

James Rodriguez is a client of one of the most influential agents, Jorge Mendes. Jorge is also the agent of his team-mate Falcao and also of his idol Cristiano Ronaldo along with many other players and managers. Presenting the heroic performances at the World Cup in 4 matches against Japan, Ivory Coast, Greece in the group stages and against Uruguay in the R16 many European Elite clubs are in line for the player. But they will have to pay quite a lot of money as AS Monaco bought him for a sum of €45 million.