Bayern Munich CEO Confirms James Rodriguez Will Leave Club on Expiry of Loan

?Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has confirmed that midfielder James Rodríguez will be leaving the club following the expiry of his loan deal this summer, with the Bundesliga winners declining to take up their purchase option.

The 27-year-old joined Bayern on a two-year loan from Real Madrid in 2017 after falling out of favour at the Bernabéu.

James Rodriquez

?Rodríguez has not been able to get the regular playing time that he would have wanted at ?Bayern, failing to start more than 20 league games in either of his two seasons.

Rummenigge has now said that Rodríguez instructed Bayern against activating the option to buy him.

“In principle the decision was made because he came to me before the end of the season and asked me not to activate the option [to buy him],” he told ?Sport Bild (as quoted by ?Goal). “Activating the option now against his will makes no sense.”

James Rodriguez

The Colombia international does not seem to have a long-term future at ?Real either and is being ?linked with a reunion with former manager Carlo Ancelotti at ?Napoli. 

Rodríguez announced himself on the world stage at the 2014 World Cup where put in a series of scintillating performances, guiding Colombia to the quarter-finals. He won the Golden Boot in the tournament and was named in the World Cup Dream Team as well as winning the Goal of the Tournament award.

His displays attracted the attention of some of the biggest clubs in Europe and in July 2014 he moved to Real Madrid for approximately £63m.

He enjoyed a strong debut season in Spain, scoring 14 goals and providing 15 assists in 38 appearances in all competitions. He was named in the ?La Liga Team of the Season and won the La Liga Best Midfielder Award.

The following campaign he found opportunities hard to come by after Zinedine Zidane took the reigns at the club. With Zidane having a settled starting 11, Rodríguez found it hard to break into the team despite playing well in the few games he started in.

He moved on loan to Bayern in July 2017, where he was reunited with his former Real manager Ancelotti, with the club having an option to buy him for €42m at the end of his loan deal.

James Rodriguez,Renato Sanches

Despite the fact that Ancelotti was sacked in October, Rodríguez still had a productive campaign, scoring eight goals and providing 13 assists in all competitions. 

He helped the Bavarian side retain the ?Bundesliga and also scored against his parent club in the semi-finals of the ?Champions League.

However, he has fallen out of favour this season under Niko Kovac, only starting 13 league games. Rodríguez has made 67 appearances for Bayern, winning the Bundesliga twice and the DFB-Pokal once.

Let’

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *