James Rodriguez has revealed that Manchester City tried to sign him in 2014.
The Sao Paulo attacker made this revelation to Twitch streamer and YouTuber, Pelicanger during a sit-down with him.
Ultimately, the Colombian international decided to join Real Madrid off the back of winning the Golden Boot at the 2014 World Cup.
James Rodriguez says he could have signed for Manchester City in 2014
Scoring six goals at the tournament, the former Monaco technician was in unstoppable touch, with his tremendous volleyed goal against Uruguay still hailed as one of the competition’s greatest-ever strikes.
In the summer of 2014, Real Madrid ended up signing the elegant forward for a whopping fee of £63 million (Guardian).
However, James Rodriguez has now given an insight into the offer from Manchester City and why he chose to turn it down.
“Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City wanted me. They made better offers than Real Madrid, but I wanted glory”, he told Pelicanger.
“I wanted Real Madrid. [Florentino] Perez called me and said to convince me, ‘What do you want? Do you want money or glory?’. I replied that I wanted glory and he said: ‘Well, then it’s done’.
Manchester City dodged a bullet
As talented as James Rodriguez was at the time, he did not hit the heights that were expected of him and as a result, it is fair to say that Manchester City dodged a bullet by missing out on his signature.
Despite notably winning two Champions League trophies and the same number of La Liga titles at Real Madrid, the 32-year-old was on the periphery of the club’s success.
Eventually, Rodriguez was loaned out to Bayern Munich, which emphasises how much his signing failed to live up to the hype.
One would argue that perhaps James Rodriguez would have thrived at Manchester City, assuming that he wilted under the pressure of emerging as Real Madrid’s next superstar.
Much like for Colombia at the 2014 World Cup, the ex-Porto poster-boy could well have started as a left-winger under Manuel Pellegrini.
However, that is a mere hypothetical scenario and judging by how James Rodriguez’s career panned out, it is fair to claim that the Sky Blues should not regret being gazumped by Real Madrid for his signature.
