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James Rodríguez

Colombian association football player

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ368441 ↗
Source-derived summary

James David Rodríguez Rubio (born 12 July 1991) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Atlético Nacional. During the decade from 2009 to 2019, various performance analyses and statistical models in European football positioned Rodríguez the best attacking midfielder in the world, and he is widely considered one of the greatest players in Colombian history.

After debuting with Envigado, Rodríguez's early breakthrough occurred in 2009 with 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 Porto, winning six titles, including the UEFA Europa League, and received the Portuguese Golden Ball in 2012. He subsequently moved to Monaco in 2013, finishing the Ligue 1 season as the top assist provider and being named to the Team of the Year.

Following his transfer to Real Madrid in 2014, Rodríguez recorded 13 goals and 12 assists in 29 appearances during his debut season, earning the official La Liga Best Midfielder award. In his following two seasons at the club, he lifted several trophies, including a La Liga and two UEFA Champions League titles. Rodríguez was then sent on loan to Bayern Munich in 2017, where he was subsequently named to the Bundesliga Team of the Season and recognized among the league's best midfielders. After a brief return to Madrid, Rodríguez signed for Premier League club Everton in the summer of 2020 on a free transfer, where he stayed for one season. He has since had short stints at various clubs, including Al-Rayyan in Qatar, Olympiacos in Greece, São Paulo in Brazil, Rayo Vallecano in Spain, León in Mexico, and Minnesota United in the United States.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “James Rodríguez” as colombian association football player. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around James, Rodríguez and Colombian.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1991, 2009, 2019, 2010—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1991-07-12. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with James, Rodríguez and Colombian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “James Rodríguez”, the useful work is to connect “colombian association football player” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q368441. VIAF identifies the subject as 316745308. The Library of Congress control number is no2015075047. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991, 2009, 2019 and 2010.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “James Rodríguez” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.