After a weak start in the 2024 Brasileirao, São Paulo parted ways with coach Thiago Carpini. One of the rumors that gained traction in the past hours is the possibility of Rafa Benítez becoming his successor, which immediately raised all sorts of questions due to his complicated history with James Rodríguez.
The Colombian midfielder and the Spanish coach have crossed paths at Real Madrid and Everton, but they didn’t have a good relationship. The midfielder lost prominence in both places shortly after Rafa took charge, so many fans wonder what a hypothetical reunion between them in Brazil would be like.
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Unsurprisingly, social media was flooded with hilarious memes and all sorts of creative posts surrounding two important names that didn’t have a good experience working together.
Rafa Benitez chegando no vestiário do SPFC e encontrando o James pic.twitter.com/ZXi8KXSYE0
— SÃO PAULO MIL GRAU (@SaoPauloMiIGrau) April 18, 2024
rafa benítez e james rodriguez se esbarrando pelos corredores do morumbi: pic.twitter.com/7UZAJsV3jr
— Geladeira Tricolor (@geladeiratrikas) April 18, 2024
El carechimba de Rafa Benítez llegando a arruinarle la vida a James pic.twitter.com/wdfVbQaI5M
— ODY 🌹 (@ODY__27) April 18, 2024
Dice que no hay fundamento y que Rafa Benítez no será técnico de Sao Paulo. Eso espero porque estaba así por James Rodríguez. https://t.co/QpPIlywy6f pic.twitter.com/JyUka3bysS
— DANY (@Mugdany) April 18, 2024
James al enterarse que Rafa Benítez suena para el Sao Paulo… pic.twitter.com/nZF0jY1ZUr
— Vela (@KalEl086) April 18, 2024
When James shed light into his bad relationship with Benítez
In June 2023, James told Semana how Benítez forced him to leave Everton: “With him, it was tough. From day one, he told me he wouldn’t count on me. He said, ‘go’. But, well, it’s better when people are clear with you.”
“Okay. I wasn’t going to say anything else, absolutely nothing, I was very respectful to him. I said, ‘well, it’s okay, I hope everything goes well for you,’ and it didn’t go well,” added the Colombian, who remembered that problems with the Spanish coach began at Real Madrid in 2015.
“At Real Madrid, there was a time when he substituted me, we were playing at the Bernabéu and I had scored a goal. With the substitution, I made gestures, and the fans also didn’t like that he took me out and they booed him. So, from there, it was like ‘you made them boo me…,’ and that’s it.
Rafa Benitez on James Rodriguez: "James Rodriguez prefers a comfortable life and money more than competition. He fails to work hard, but expects to be on the lineup. That would be disrespectful to other players who work hard and then be on the bench on gameday." 😳🔥 pic.twitter.com/8JdmZlipyo
— GiveMeSport (@GiveMeSport) October 2, 2021
“It was from there. But, in the end, when he was at Real Madrid, I always played. Then there was that clash and that’s it. When he arrived at Everton, what happened, happened.”
In a Twitch stream, James gave even more details about the rift between them in England: “On the first day of preseason, Benítez told me, ‘you’re already old, you’re 30 years old, I prefer to have young people, people with hierarchy who run, so find yourself a club.’ I told the manager that in three months Rafa Benítez would be out, I know something about football. I’ve been with him and it’s tough, in three months we’ll talk.’ Three months later he was out and they were last.”
Rafa Benítez’s explanation for James’ departure from Everton
“When you have a player, with the situation we have, that can be available for 50% of the games overall in the Premier League it’s not something we can manage easily,” Benítez told The Guardian in September 2021.
“The reality now is that the player is happy because he has an option and he is pleased with that. We had to maximise our resources. We could see the injury record and the thing that we would need for the team. Hopefully we can use this move for another kind of player that will be fine for us. Hopefully he is happy, he will score goals and can play well there, but it is something that we needed to do to be sure that we could move forward.”
James continued his career at Al-Rayyan in Qatar, while Benítez remained at the helm of the Toffees for only a little longer before being sacked. Now, there is speculation about a hypothetical reunion in São Paulo, although it seems unlikely.
Zagallo documentary by Sambafoot
Sambafoot Series has launched a new documentary about the football legend Zagallo. Known as ‘Velho Lobo’ and as superstitious as it gets, Zagallo helped shape what Brazilian football is nowadays – as a player and as a coach. The first two episodes are available in Sambafoot’s Youtube channel and the series will receive weekly releases to tell this legend’s life story.
