James Rodriguez admitted he believes Messi is the greatest, but revealed Real Madrid pressured him to say otherwise. The Colombian star had intriguing experiences at Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Everton, and later in Qatar. Recently, he shared some fascinating stories from his playing career in Europe and Asia.
James Rodriguez could only stay in Qatar for 12 months due to lifestyle differences
Although in 2021 James was said to have found a secure position and a lot of money at Al Rayyan Club in Qatar, after only 12 months this player left. He said on Globo channel (Brazil) that life there was so different from what he was used to, that even bathing and eating brought challenges to the former World Cup top scorer.
“Life and culture in Qatar are very difficult to absorb,” James said. “For example, when bathing, everyone is naked and that’s normal. But when I was in Qatar my teammates told me not to do that. I feel afraid of that, afraid of their implications.”
“There everyone ate with their hands. I saw them pick up food and give it to me to eat but I refused. When I asked for a plate, they told me I had to eat with my hands, and I firmly refused, saying that that way of eating was crazy. I was even told to eat with my right hand instead of my left for personal hygiene reasons.”
James thinks Messi is the greatest player in history
James then went to play for Greece and has now returned to Brazil to play for Sao Paulo, although his performance in this country’s national championship is not good. “I thought football would be easier to play here, but it turns out the teams played very hard, with a lot of collisions and fouls that broke the game into pieces. I thought this was a technical tournament, although it is true that there are many high-level players, but most of them play hard,” James said.
When asked who James’s favorite teammate was, he chose his old coach. “I really want to play with Zidane, on the training field I have seen him do things that few people can do. In addition, I also want to play with Messi, even though I often face him, I always think Messi is the greatest player in history,” he said.
James revealed that Real Madrid requires in the contract that players must praise Ronaldo
A statement that would surprise some Real Madrid fans, but James immediately explained: “We don’t think Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest player, including Sergio (Ramos). In our contract at Real Madrid there is a clause that requires us to praise Cristiano Ronaldo as the greatest player.”
It seems that Real Madrid’s need to “massage” Ronaldo’s ego is real. Chess king Magnus Carlsen once said that when he visited Real Madrid, he praised Isco as his favorite player, then the club’s people filmed another photo asking him to praise Ronaldo. How self-conscious does CR7 have to be to make Real Madrid do that?
