Arias spoke to James about Atletico move

In an interview with Spanish radio station Onda (as relayed by AS), Santiago Arias of Atletico Madrid has revealed that he had spoken to James Rodriguez of Real Madrid about James moving to Atletico this summer.

The future was very unclear for James during the transfer window. Real appeared very keen on seeing him out permanently after his two-year loan with Bayern Munich ended, and both Napoli and Atletico were heavily credited with interest in the 27-year-old attacking midfielder. And while at Napoli he would have rejoined former Real boss Carlo Ancelotti, Atletico head coach Diego Simeone looked to add some real creative spark to his midfield. However, neither move materialized and Zinedine Zidane has decided to give James another chance, and his performances so far this season have been encouraging.

Arias says he spoke to fellow Colombia international about the reports mentioning the possibility of moving to the Wanda Metropolitano, asking him if they were true and explaining how things work there, but he admits that there wasn’t much to say as it was a matter discussed between the two clubs.