Carlos Valderrama is regarded to be one of the best players to have ever played for the Colombian national side and the retired superstar is also the most capped performer for the team as well, this is proof of just how much of an impact that Valderrama has had for Colombia.
The retired star still remains up to date with everything that is going on in the world of football and Valderrama has recently talked about Real Madrid’s James Rodriguez who he considers to be as his true successor and as someone that can follow the legacy which was left behind by Valderrama a few years ago.
“There are very few ‘classic number ten players’ because the game has changed. That said, the most skilled players look to play in that position. It’s really hard to make a player of that caliber disappear. That’s for average players. James is already my successor. People used to say that we had no number ten because I’d retired. James is here to stay and is Colombia’s new classic number 10 player.’’ Former star of the Colombian national side, Carlos Valderrama said.
James Rodriguez made a name for himself during the 2014 World Cup where he scored 6 goals and was the top goal-scorer of the entire competition which is a pretty amazing accomplishment taking into consideration all of the high-profile players and superstars that were competing including players such as: Neymar, Muller, Messi and Benzema just to name a few. Rodriguez had even less playing time than all of those players but even with his limited time on the pitch, he managed to score more goals than everyone else.
Real Madrid was so impressed by the performances of Rodriguez that they splashed out €80 million which is a huge fee for a player that had not even reached the 23 years of age, even though James Rodriguez hasn’t lived up to his enormous price tag and hasn’t exactly replicated his performances of some years ago, Valderrama is certain that Rodriguez is the future of Colombia.
