Everton signed James Rodriguez from Madrid free

Marcel Brands, Everton’s director of football, has confirmed that the club signed James Rodriguez for free from Real Madrid last summer.

Whilst commenting on Everton’s transfer activity last summer, Brands revealed the details about the attacking midfielder’s switch.

“It was one of the strangest and most difficult transfer periods of all time,” he said.

“The pandemic was clearly involved in this window.

“We signed six new players, three on a permanent transfer: Allan, [Abdoulaye] Doucoure and [Ben] Godfrey; one as compensation for training: [Niels] Nkounkou; one as a loan without commission: Robin Olsen; and one for free: James Rodriguez.”

This reaffirms the recent statement from Banfield, James’ final club before leaving for Europe, who have an agreement in place to earn a percentage of the each of his transfer fees, so they did not receive anything from his switch to Everton.

“Sadly, for the transfer of James Rodriguez from Real Madrid to Everton, Banfield received no money,” Ignacio Uzquia, the Banfield club treasurer, said.

“There was no cost involved in the transaction, like it was for free.

“The relevant consultations were made to the clubs involved, but in all cases they confirmed to us that [Banfield] would not receive money as a mechanism of solidarity.”

©Marca