Who can believe that it is a simple coincidence? Falcao García and James Rodríguez, sentenced in their clubs, without offers to continue their careers, older now to compete with the new generations, good yes but victims of constant injuries and expensive. In case it was necessary, both are out of the Colombian National Team and urgently to return. It cannot be accidental.
The journalist Roberto Antolín recently encouraged himself to a hypothesis that is worth considering: “Jorge Mendes ruined the careers of Falcao and James,” he said – yes, another ‘coincidence’ is that they both have the same representative. His theory is based on the fact that, just when Falcao was the star of the Spanish League and James was making his way into the best team in Germany and one of the best in the world, the Portuguese manipulated them to sign for money rather than success. That said, you have to consider it.
But it must also be said that when he stood out in Porto and won and set a scoring record in the Europa League, the only one who believed him and put the 40 million euros in for him was Atlético de Madrid, due to Mendes’ management. It is true that, once again, continental champion and great figure, he preferred to take him to Monaco, to a league like the French one that is one step down in competitiveness and not to Real Madrid, which apparently wanted him but never offered. It ended up in the Principality because there were 45 million euros of transfer and a hefty commission, yes. But even then, when the serious ligament injury came, he got him ‘internships’ in Manchester United and Chelsea, without the samarium being able to take advantage of them to value himself. That is why it would end up, in exchange for 10 million, in Galatasaray in Turkey.
The same in the case of James, which is much more recent: in 2010 he took him out of Porto and took him, what a coincidence, to Monaco, which was not bad for a 20-year-old boy: he transferred it for 45 million euros but later put it to be worth 75 million, what Real Madrid paid. One detail: what appreciated him was not Mendes, but the World Cup in Brazil that he played with Colombia, in which he was a scorer. And once there he became a cloth of tears: he took it out in 2017 because the boy was crying out for a lifeguard, which had the Bayern Munich crest, and once there it was more the cold, the language, the total lack of adaptation what He expelled him again towards Madrid and towards Zidane, and there neither Mendes nor anyone else weighed. It was all the left-hander’s mistake, who paid in 2020 with the ninguneo and that ended in another desperate exit, with the good Samaritan of always, Carlo Ancelotti, taking him to Everton. If there was any merit here from the Portuguese agent, it was to make the transfer free, that is, to convince Real Madrid to let him go.
And here we are, with two crossed stories of players who are clear about their present but not their future: both know that they will not play in Galatasaray or Everton, respectively, because their coaches would have had the details of informing them to look for a team; What they have no idea about is where their careers will continue.
It is then that Mendes, if he had any fault in ruining their career by privileging their commissions, has the chance of revenge: he must get Falcao a team, it can even be in the MLS; that guarantees him a couple of years of contract despite the fact that he has been injured for two seasons, is 34 years old and also costs about 5 million euros per year. James’ thing would seem simpler because he has the advantage of 30 years just turned and a world-renowned talent, but against him the same recurring physical problems of ‘El Tigre’ play against him and an uncomfortable bad reputation for his supposed complex character, which already made him walk away from Zidane, Kovac and, guess who, Rafa Benítez, current Everton coach.
They are two very important clients in a portfolio of Gestifute (Mendes’s company) that has 149 players and profits, only by way of commissions, of 88 million euros, a good slice as a result of the 103 million and 140 million that Falcao and James have moved in their careers respectively.
And now you need to accommodate them. He has done it before with relative success, but what is now is peremptory. The former captains of the Colombian National Team desperately seek to get back on Reinaldo Rueda’s radar for the Qatar 2022 Qualifiers (they return in September), which may be, quietly, the last World Cup for both of them. They have to do the full course and give a hand from qualifying. They know it and that is why they are going to play all their remains, even if they do not say it publicly.
It is in the hands of Mendes, then and now, the final salvation, the last lifeboat, the only flare of the ship. And they have no other than to trust the Portuguese, who even if it is for money needs to find them a club that guarantees continuity, even if it is not in the elite they dream of. In the end, if Rueda calls players from Arabia, what is the worst that can happen?
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