Nesta picked up the phone
A call from the Avellino dugout may be what tips this one over. Alessandro Nesta is understood to have spoken directly with James Rodriguez to lay out the club’s plans, and Marca report that talks between the two sides are well advanced.
The Colombian has been without a club since leaving Leon. He is 35. Avellino, newly promoted to Serie B, want him. Two men who know the top level and speak the same language, one now coaching, the other chasing what might be a final European chapter.
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12 years on from the Golden Boot
You have to go back to 2014 to find James Rodriguez at his peak. Six goals at the World Cup in Brazil, the Golden Boot, that volley against Uruguay still replayed to death. Real Madrid paid close to 80 million euros on the back of it.
Then came the winding road. Monaco, Madrid, a loan at Bayern Munich, Everton, and a long stretch away from Europe: Qatar, Greece, Brazil, a short spell at Rayo Vallecano, then Mexico. Avellino would bring him back to the continent after several seasons out of it.
A gamble for both sides
For Avellino, the statement is obvious. Promoted clubs in Italy’s second tier rarely land a player who has worn the Real Madrid shirt and finished top scorer at a World Cup.
For the player, the maths is messier. Serie B is long, physical and unforgiving, nothing like the stage he once owned. Whether the legs still match the name is the only question that matters.
Nothing is signed. Marca say close. Close is not done.
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