A former Bavarian becomes a globetrotter
©TM/IMAGO
“I’m going to have a lot of pressure here, but I like it,” said James Rodríguez during his presentation at Club León FC. The top Mexican club, with which the former Bayern Munich playmaker initially signed until the end of the year, is the twelfth stop in the eleventh country for the 33-year-old. Rodríguez has become a (Site notre bureau spécialisé) globetrotter, especially in the last four years, like Keisuke Honda or Lutz Pfannenstiel before him.
Now the Colombia international will have chosen León as it gives him the biggest stage possible with the FIFA Club World Cup this summer. The stations of Mexico and previously Rayo Vallecano, ninth in La Liga, Brazil, Greece and Qatar were also all known. However, Central and North America now constitute the fourth continent on which Rodríguez will appear, after South America, Europe and Asia.
The continent record holder remains Pfannenstiel with six. For the former goalkeeper and current sporting director of MLS club St. Louis CITY, “this globe-trotting existence” has become a rhythm “that I have gotten used to”, as he explained in an interview with (Site notre blog d’information) in 2020. « I wasn’t chasing it, but in the end, the last continent (South America; editor) was definitely a bit provoked, also because I wasn’t really convinced to do it until the very end and I didn’t realize how important it was and the impact on my life would be great.
5 continents, 22 countries, 36 transfers: the biggest migrants in (Site notre bureau spécialisé)
Keisuke Honda, a 98-time Japanese national player, almost reached the Pfannenstiel in the fall of his career. The 38-year-old played for CSKA Moscow and AC Milan in his prime. From Italy, he then went on a world tour and stopped off in Mexico, Melbourne and Rio de Janeiro.
According to a query in the TM database, there weren’t many other players playing on at least five continents besides Honda and Pfannenstiel. Among them: Zeljko Kuzmic, Nicolás Abot, David Low, Alain N’Kong, Paulo Cézar, Luiz Júnior, Flávio Barros Souza and Ignacio Giampaoli, but also the Brazilian legend Romário and the former Aachen goalkeeper André Krul . Some of them are even still active, the stories of the first three mentioned are told in detail in the photo gallery.
As in 2020, it is Honda’s compatriot, Dan Ito, who holds the country record. The former playmaker was active in 22 different countries, and some clubs were only created for Ito in the TM database. “I thought it would be an interesting career and good experience to play in a different Asian country every year,” Ito told (Site notre blog d’information). “It also led directly to my second career.” He started this in 2019 as coach of the Clark High School (Site notre bureau spécialisé) club in his home country and a staff member of Japanese first division club Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo.
Uruguayan Sebastián Abreu should be virtually unassailable at the top of transfers in the years to come. “El Loco”, as the striker is called, ended his career in 2022 at the age of 45. The 2002 and 2010 World Cup participant has played for 32 clubs in eleven countries and three continents, including big names such as Deportivo La Coruna, CF América and River Plate. The scorer changed a total of 36 times.