Atletico Madrid president: James Rodriguez a great player

Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo responded that his club ‘are always interested in great players’ when asked about James Rodriguez’s future.

The Real Madrid playmaker is certain to exit the club this summer and Los Rojiblancos have been linked with a surprise move for the player, who has also been strongly rumoured to be interesting Napoli.

“Atletico are always interested in great players and James is one of them,” Cerezo told reporters, as cited by Marca.

“But from that to come to a transfer…there is a stretch. Negotiations? Not that I know of.

“We have had a lot of incorporations and we are in negotiations to get some more in. Negotiations end well or badly, but there are negotiations ongoing.”

Diego Simeone reportedly has desired five star attacking players at the club to propel them to a similar level of potency to La Liga title rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Atleti have signed Joao Felix this summer while Thomas Lemar, Diego Costa and Alvaro Morata are also viewed as having the requisite quality to land a league title.

Antoine Griezmann has left this summer while it is also claimed that the futures of Nikola Kalinic, Vitolo and Angel Correa lie away from Los Rojiblancos.

James has returned to Madrid following a two-year loan spell at Bayern Munich having started just 13 Bundesliga matches this campaign and is said to want more regular first-team football.

The former Porto and Monaco star spent three seasons at Los Blancos, helping them to two European titles, but started just 13 La Liga games in his final campaign.

Napoli boss Carlo Ancelotti brought James from Monaco to the Spanish capital back in 2014 and worked with him again during his time with Bundesliga giants Bayern.

Tags James Rodriguez
La Liga - Club News