Former Real Madrid superstar James Rodriguez is unemployed: What the hell happened to the star of the 2014 World Cup?!

Even then-Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who was far more familiar with James, was "absolutely amazed by the quality of his performances" in Brazil.

"For me, it was the intelligence of his passing, the suppleness of him and the fluency of his game," the Frenchman told beIN Sport. "It also was the speed of his decision-making. The penetrative passes he made were just absolutely fantastic.

"You just wanted to see him have the ball and when you want somebody to have the ball, it is always a sign of exceptional quality. And he definitely has that."

Florentino Perez was just as smitten with James' heroics at the World Cup, so a move to Real Madrid inevitably followed. Superstar status beckoned.

"He's one of the best players in the world," James' childhood idol Carlos Valderrama enthused, "Why can't he become the greatest?"

There was certainly nothing stopping him, at least in terms of talent. James was the perfect No.10; he had it all: outstanding technique, excellent vision and an explosive shot.

Perhaps even more importantly, he was intelligent.

"What is most surprising about James," Colombia boss Jose Pekerman explained in 2014, "is that in spite of his young age, he does not have any problem doing things that most football players take many years to understand."

Perhaps that shouldn't have been too surprising, though. After all, James was 22 at the time, yet he'd already been playing senior football for eight years, having made his debut for Envigado at just 14.

He'd also broken one record after another while helping Banfield win their first ever Argentine championship while still only a teenager, and then proven himself in Europe, first at Porto, and then Monaco.

This was a young man, then, with a hell of a lot of top-flight experience.

Perhaps his subsequent fitness issues were inevitable, then. Maybe the rigours of the professional game were always going to take their toll on someone who started so young.

James isn't a classic case of burnout, though. There have been other issues at play.

Injuries are often unfortunate, but sometimes they can be attributed to a failure to properly look after one's body, and James has faced accusations throughout his career that he lacks the requisite discipline for the very highest level of performance.

"The boy isn't focused," former Colombia national team doctor Hector Fabio Cruz told Futbolred in 2019. "Instead of working for the new season, he went to fix his eyebrows and his hair while he should have been working.

"Big teams like Madrid expect professionalism, players who will be well-prepared, but this boy's attitude isn't right. A player who spends months away from the pitch and goes from club to club. But if he prepared properly, he wouldn't suffer any of this.

"Cristiano Ronaldo took a week of vacation [after the 2018 World Cup]. He went on a yacht with his family to Greece and then the following week he had 15 people preparing him for the season.

"He's the most professional guy I know. James, though, left the same World Cup injured, hired a private plane, went to the beach and relaxed. That can't be.

"I already predicted that things would go wrong for him because he doesn't work."

There have also been allegations that James doesn't work hard enough on the field either, which points to another problem.

James has always felt like something of a throwback, a player from a different era, one in which No.10s were the fulcrum of the attack, and shorn of any defensive duties.

Such freedom is no longer afforded to No.10s. One could even argue that the trequartista position no longer exists, or at the very least has been completely redefined.

It certainly feels indicative of a major tactical shift in the modern era that a coach like Zinedine Zidane, formerly one of the game's great attacking midfielders, could find no permanent place in his Real Madrid starting line up for what looked like a kindred spirit in James.

Were it not for Carlo Ancelotti, in fact, one wonders if James' time at the highest level would have actually ended a lot sooner.

It was while playing under the Italian that James enjoyed his best-ever season at Santiago Bernabeu - his first, in 2014-15 - and Ancelotti also played a pivotal role in subsequent spells at Bayern Munich and Everton.

James himself has admitted that he viewed the coach as a father figure, and Ancelotti arguably understood better than anyone else what the Colombian could offer a team - and, more importantly, what he could not.

After James had made an impressive start to his time on Merseyside in 2020, Ancelotti told France Football: "When I signed him this summer, everyone was worried about his physical state and to see how he'd cope with the intensity of the Premier League.

"During the first four games, do you know how many times he sprinted? Seven! He’s got more assists and goals than sprints! "So, what are we talking about? Of what we expect a player to do on the pitch?

"When I was at Milan, we brought in Ronaldo. On his arrival, he weighed 100kg. Before the first game, I told him: 'You know I can't play you. You need to lose weight.' He replied, 'What do you want me to do on the pitch? Score or run? If it's to run, put me on the bench, if it's to score, play me!'

"I played him. He didn’t run, but he scored two goals. For James, it's the same thing."

One could certainly understand the argument, but it wasn't quite the same thing, in fairness.

Ronaldo's status as one of the finest footballers in history had been sealed long before his move to Milan. His spell at San Siro added nothing to his incredible legacy. But James' career was nowhere near as complete.

Granted, when it comes to Ronaldo, one cannot help but wonder how much greater he could have been had it not been for the knee injuries. But he will go down in history as arguably the most electrifying No.9 the game has ever seen.

James, instead, will probably be viewed as a classic case of burnout. But, in truth, James does not really fit conveniently into one box.

His career was not completely ruined by injuries. Or even ill-discipline. You can’t really argue that his heart wasn't in it, because this is a passionate character who didn't even like losing at Playstation as a child.

He is not an idiot or a waster either. We're talking about a football-turned-entrepreneur who has made millions through various investments made in a coffee franchise, a water brand, energy drinks, real estate and agribusiness.

He achieved many of his dreams on the pitch, and now he is trying to help others achieve theirs, through a variety of initiatives in his homeland.

James also remains extremely driven. He hasn't lost his love of the game. He has a master's degree in Sports Management and Administration and is keen on becoming a club director after he calls time on his playing career.

He still feels he has much to offer football, and understandably so. Few players better understand the game's potential pitfalls, because he has fallen foul of so many of them.

So, what happened to James? A lot of things, in truth. He could easily have become the greatest player in the world but, for a variety of reasons, he never really came close.

Is he a wasted talent, then? A victim of his own success? Or his own worst enemy? Maybe all of those things.

What we know for sure, though, is that for one memorable month in 2014, he wasn't just LeBron's favourite footballer; he was everyone's. And that's no mean feat.

But while the story of James Rodriguez is no sporting tragedy, it still feels a little sad that nobody wants that left foot anymore...