James Rodríguez

James David Rodríguez Rubio (born 12 July 1991) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Categoría Primera A club Atlético Nacional. From 2009 to 2019, various performance analyses and statistical models in European football positioned Rodríguez as the best attacking midfielder in the world, and he is widely considered one of the greatest players in Colombian history.

After debuting with Envigado, Rodríguez's early breakthrough occurred in 2009 with Banfield, where he became the youngest foreign player to debut, score, and win a championship in the Argentine league, contributing to the club's first league title in its 113-year history. In 2010, he joined Porto, winning six titles, including the UEFA Europa League, and received the Portuguese Golden Ball in 2012. He subsequently moved to Monaco in 2013, finishing the Ligue 1 season as the top assist provider and being named to the Team of the Year.

Following his transfer to Real Madrid in 2014, Rodríguez recorded 13 goals and 12 assists in 29 appearances during his debut season, earning the official La Liga Best Midfielder award. A comparative academic study conducted by the University of Extremadura and the Complutense University of Madrid, concluded that Rodríguez was the most efficient midfielder, having the highest average of goals and assists per match in the history of Real Madrid.In his following two seasons at the club, he lifted several trophies, including a La Liga and two UEFA Champions League titles.

Rodríguez was then sent on loan to Bayern Munich in 2017, where he was subsequently named to the Bundesliga Team of the Season and recognized among the league's best midfielders. After a brief return to Madrid, Rodríguez signed for Premier League club Everton in the summer of 2020 on a free transfer, where he stayed for one season. He has since had short stints at various clubs, including Al-Rayyan in Qatar, Olympiacos in Greece, São Paulo in Brazil, Rayo Vallecano in Spain, León in Mexico, and Minnesota United in the United States.