James Rodriguez has reignited his feud with Rafael Benitez over the circumstances surrounding his departure from Everton.
The Colombian playmaker, who signed for the Toffees in 2020 after leaving Real Madrid, has spoken candidly about the frustrations he faced when Benitez replaced Carlo Ancelotti as Everton’s manager in the summer of 2021.
Rodriguez arrived at Goodison Park in what was seen as a coup for the club. Having previously played under Ancelotti at both Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, the move marked the third time the Italian manager had signed the attacking midfielder.
His arrival signalled Everton’s ambition to compete at the top end of the Premier League, and for a time, the results matched the hype. By Christmas, Ancelotti’s side were second in the league, and Rodriguez played a pivotal role, contributing 10 goal involvements in 23 matches.
However, injuries hampered his progress, and the team faltered in the second half of the season, eventually finishing 10th. In the summer of 2021, Ancelotti was lured back to the Bernabeu, leaving Everton in search of a new manager.
The club controversially turned to former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez, a move that many supporters viewed with scepticism due to his links with their Merseyside rivals.
For Rodriguez, however, the problem with Benitez went deeper than football rivalries. The pair had clashed before at Real Madrid, where Benitez’s brief stint as manager saw him quickly sideline Rodriguez.
Speaking in a recent interview with Everton, the 33-year-old reflected on that troubled relationship, saying: “Yes, I’ve spoken about this in interviews before and I didn’t want to leave the club either, but the new manager had arrived, and we all know who that is, and he said I wasn’t going to feature in his plans.”
Rodriguez continued, expressing his frustration at the way things ended at Goodison:
“I never wanted to leave, that much is obvious. I felt that I could have gone on to play two or three seasons at the club. But it’s plain to see that the manager said that he wouldn’t be wanting me involved at all.
“The supporters wanted me to stay and so did I. But in the end, that’s just football for you. What happened then is now in the past but it was a real shame because I believed that I could have gone on to achieve more in my time at Everton.”
Rodriguez’s time at Everton was further complicated by a series of injuries that prevented him from playing in front of the club’s fans, aside from pre-season matches.
Just weeks into the new season, he completed a move to Qatari side Al-Rayyan in September 2021, a decision that many saw as a step down for a player of his calibre. Meanwhile, Benitez’s reign at Everton unravelled rapidly, and he was sacked less than four months after Rodriguez’s departure.
Since then, Rodriguez has enjoyed a career resurgence, with stints at Olympiacos and Sao Paulo, before joining La Liga side Rayo Vallecano.
He has also remained a key figure for the Colombian national team, scoring in their recent 2-0 victory over Argentina. Yet, despite moving on from Everton, Rodriguez admits his time at the club left a lasting impression and some regrets.
Reflecting on his brief spell in the Premier League, Rodriguez said:
“I would have absolutely loved to have played in front of the fans but from what I’ve seen on social media, I can tell that they have a lot of affection for me, which means that I must have performed pretty well there.
“I think I displayed a decent level of form that season, we started off the Premier League campaign very well, I think it had been the best start to a season that Everton had enjoyed in a long time.”
Rodriguez added: “I was always happy because in spite of not having them close by, I could always feel the love and affection from all those fans. It was a short spell, but the time I was there made a great impression on both myself and my family too.”
While Rodriguez has moved on, the lingering frustration over how his Everton career ended remains evident, with Benitez once again at the heart of the story.