{"id":16378,"date":"2025-11-11T18:48:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=658141"},"modified":"2025-11-11T18:48:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:18:55","slug":"james-rodriguez-leaves-leon-becomes-free-agent-ahead-of-2026-world-cup-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/james-rodriguez-leaves-leon-becomes-free-agent-ahead-of-2026-world-cup-push\/","title":{"rendered":"James Rodr\u00edguez leaves Le\u00f3n; Becomes free agent ahead of 2026 World Cup push"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Colombian star James Rodr\u00edguez has officially parted ways with Mexican club Club Le\u00f3n, becoming a free agent once again. The 34-year-old attacking midfielder is now on the lookout for a new challenge as he prepares to play a key role for Colombia in their 2026 World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n<p>James joined Le\u00f3n in 2024, bringing experience and flair to Liga MX after stints across Europe and South America. However, his time in Mexico proved short-lived, with the club confirming his departure by mutual consent. Despite flashes of brilliance, consistent game time and fitness were persistent challenges for the former Real Madrid and Bayern Munich playmaker.<\/p>\n<p>The 2014 FIFA World Cup Golden Boot winner remains one of Colombia\u2019s most iconic players, remembered for his stunning performances in Brazil that propelled him to global stardom. Since then, his career has taken him through some of football\u2019s biggest stages, including spells with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Everton, and Olympiacos, before his move to Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colombian star James Rodr\u00edguez has officially parted ways with Mexican club Club Le\u00f3n, becoming a free agent once again. The\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":37271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1229,4222,3686,1100,1823,3796,2763,3570],"class_list":["post-16378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-colombia","tag-colombia-football-team","tag-david-ornstein","tag-everton","tag-fabrizio-romano","tag-football","tag-james-rodriguez","tag-world-cup-2026"],"reading_time":"1 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}