Homecoming, here we go! James Rodríguez agrees Atlético Nacional return
Sixteen years after leaving Colombia to conquer the world, James Rodríguez is coming home: verbal agreement with Atlético Nacional, here we go!
Details: Fabrizio Romano reports that James, 35, has reached a verbal agreement to join the Medellín giants, with formal steps to follow and the club hoping to confirm his return in the coming days. The Colombia captain has been a free agent since leaving Minnesota United after this summer's World Cup.
The road home was not straight. Nacional reportedly closed the door on a move back in January, and James instead took a short MLS detour that produced just 195 minutes in six matches before a World Cup in which he started all five Colombia games without a goal or assist. Besiktas dangled roughly five million dollars this summer, but the emotional pull of home won out over money. Now the 2014 Golden Boot winner, whose career spanned Real Madrid, Bayern, Everton and beyond, returns to a Colombian league he left as a teenager from Envigado. For Nacional, a club that calls itself the most decorated in the country, it is the signing of a generation: the biggest star of modern Colombian football wearing the green and white.
It's worth noting that James boasts 127 goals and 163 assists in 524 career club appearances, numbers Nacional fans can now dream of seeing at Atanasio Girardot.
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Miguel Solomons
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