While Luis Suarez is making headlines for all the wrong reasons, another South American forward is starting to make the world sit up and take notice of the prodigious talent that many in Colombia have seen coming.
James Rodriguez is rapidly becoming one of the stars of a tournament that has been lit up already by some great performances and stunning goals.
The 22-year-old is hardly an unknown quantity, having become the ninth most expensive player in history when Monaco paid Porto £38 million (Dh237m) last summer, but he is now showing on the world’s biggest stage what prompted such spending.
And he was paid the ultimate compliment in Colombian football when Carlos Valderrama said they can call off the search for the next “El Pibe” (The Kid) as he was known – because Rodriguez is that man.
“For a long time in Colombia they have been looking for the next Carlos Valderrama,” said the man whose hair is a shade greyer and just a little shorter than 20 years ago, when he and his hairstyle were global football icons.
“Finally they have now found who that player is, and James Rodriguez will be the next big star, not just now but for the next 10 years.
“He has the potential to be the greatest Colombian player ever, and possibly one of the best to ever play the game. He has proved in Argentina, Portugal and France that he is a great player, and he has started really well here at the World Cup. I am pleased that he is playing so well and is a focus for the Colombian team.”
Valderrama, speaking at an adidas event in Rio, admitted equal parts excitement and relief that the current generation of Colombians are starting to match the reputation of the class of 1994, which he captained, and was tipped for great things.
Valderrama’s side went to USA ‘94 as the dark horses to win it but made an early exit when the tragic Andres Escobar scored an own-goal against the host nation.
Escobar was murdered on his return to Colombia, and the country has taken two decades to recover from the dark shadow of that period.
Now they are playing with verve and scoring goals for fun, with nine in three victories out of three in the group games, and all of this has come without their established star striker Radamel Falcao, who failed to recover from his knee ligament injured before the tournament.
Instead, Rodriguez – or James as he is known – has stepped up to the mark with three goals and several assists for the likes of Jackson Martinez and Juan Cuadrado, who have all raised Colombian hopes.
“It is a very good team, a young team that is playing well,” added Valderrama. “They have been tog-ether a while, came through qualifying and clearly enjoy playing together.
“It is very important that the team know each other very well and work together. For the first time ever Colombia qualified after just two group games, scoring more goals than ever at this stage.
“You can see by the number of goals we have scored already that we have very good attacking players. But you should remember we have a good goalkeeper and defence, so you should not just focus on the forwards.”
