After his participation in the last double knockout date with the Colombia national team, against Bolivia and Venezuela, James Rodriguez was expected to be present this Friday at Al-Rayyan's debut in the Asian Champions League, against Istiklol Dushanbe, team from Tajikistan.
The Qatari team won 3-2 as a visitor for the first day of Group A, in which they will also face Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) and Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia), the current champion of the competition and where the Colombian Gustavo Cuéllar plays. However, the cucuteño steering wheel was the great absent from the call, since it was not even on the bench of substitutes.
This situation caused many fans to start speculating about why James was not present with the team. Initially, the local media explained that it had a muscular problem, which is why it would not be taken into account for the match in order to prioritize its recovery.
However, in the last few hours a new version emerged that pointed out that Rodríguez was not available to Istikol by his own decision. This was announced by the Qatari half, Tembah, who explained that the steering wheel of the 'Tricolor' worked in this way to press his departure from the institution for next season.
In addition, according to this position, the 30-year-old midfielder departed from the call to focus his efforts on finding a new club in Europe. The newspaper argues that James would have already communicated this decision to his close circle.
It should be recalled that James has a contract with Al-Rayyan until June 2024, so the team interested in acquiring its services must, on the one hand, pay a termination clause close to seven million euros. And on the other hand, being able to pay his high salary, as this was one of the reasons that motivated Everton to find equipment for him in last year's summer market.
This information was surprising considering that the Qatari squad itself published this Saturday a series of photographs of a training session in which James could be observed together with his teammates. “Al Rayyan begins preparations to face Al Hilal”, was the message on the Instagram account.
In the run-up to this commitment, valid for the second date of the Asian Champions League, Al-Rayyan coach Nicolás Córdova confirmed that the '10 of the Colombia national team is injured, and that was the reason why he was not seen in the last match against Istiklol.
“Today we start preparing for this Monday's game, we will face a strong opponent,” the Chilean coach said at a press conference, adding:
Although it was believed that James could appear this Monday, Córdova did not confirm whether he will be able to count on the flyer 'Cafetero'. The duel between Al-Rayyan and Al Hilal will be played at 12:15pm (Colombian time) and will be broadcast on Star+.
So far this season, James Rodriguez has played 14 matches for Al-Rayyan: 12 in the league and two in the Amir Cup. In the same way, he accumulates five goals and seven assists, making him the player who scored the most goals in the squad.
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