James Rod
James David Rodríguez Rubio (born 12 July 1991) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder. As of July 2026, he is a free agent, and his last team was Minnesota United FC of Major League Soccer (MLS). He is a international for the Colombia national football team, serving as its captain and widely considered one of the greatest players in its history. During the decade of the 2010s, various performance analyses and statistical models in European football positioned him as the best attacking midfielder in the world.
After debuting in Envigado FC, Rodríguez's early breakthrough occurred in 2009 with Club Atlético 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 F.C. Porto, winning eight titles, including the UEFA Europa League, and receiving the Portuguese Golden Ball. He subsequently moved to A.S. Monaco in 2013, finishing the season as the top assist provider and being named to the Ligue 1 Team of the Year.
In 2014, the International Centre for Sports Studies ranked him as the second-best attacking midfielder in Europe. He won the Golden Boot at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, scoring six goals to help his national team reach the quarter-finals, which marks Colombia's best performance at a World Cup tournament to date. One of these goals was voted Goal of the Tournament and subsequently won the FIFA Puskás Award for the best goal of 2014, making it the first time a World Cup goal received this accolade. During the same tournament, he also recorded the highest scoring average for a midfielder in a single World Cup, averaging 1.2 goals per match.
Following his transfer to Real Madrid CF in 2014, he 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, published in the journal Omega, analyzed the productivity of elite footballers over a 70-year period. Utilizing statistical models to evaluate performance data, the study identified Rodríguez as the most efficient midfielder with the highest average of goals and assists per match in the history of Real Madrid.
Rodríguez was later sent on loan to Bayern Munich in 2017, where he was subsequently named to the official Bundesliga Team of the Season and recognized as the best midfielder in the league. During the decade from 2009 to 2019 across Europe's top five leagues, Rodríguez established himself as the midfielder with the highest average of goals and assists, as well as the highest volume of accurate passes in the final third. In the summer of 2020, he signed for Premier League club Everton on a free transfer, staying there for one season. He has since played for Qatar's Al-Rayyan, Olympiacos, São Paulo, Rayo Vallecano, Mexican club León, and Minnesota United.
With 131 caps, Rodríguez is Colombia's record appearance holder. Rodríguez started his senior international career at the age of 20. He played in the 2014, 2018 and 2026 World Cups, winning the Golden Boot and being included in the All-Star Team in 2014. He also represented his nation at the Copa América in 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2024, winning a third-place medal in 2016 and reaching the final in 2024, the latter in which he received the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player and set the record for most assists in a single edition. At the international level, he entered the top ten list of all-time assist providers in men's international football history, surpassing Brazil's Pelé. Additionally, he is the second-highest assist provider in the history of FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL), surpassing Lionel Messi in overall qualification assists and trailing only Brazil's Neymar.
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