Real Madrid ‘ignoring’ clubs' interest in James Rodriguez

Real Madrid are reportedly ignoring offers for Colombia midfielder James Rodriguez -even though Zinedine Zidane recommended his sale.

AS says that clubs such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain are all interested in James but as it stands, Los Blancos prefer not to discuss his departure.

PSG are said to have been willing to pay around €90m for the ex-Monaco player, who himself wants to avoid spending another season as a reserve, as he was for much of the 2015-16 campaign.

Zizou is alleged to have recommended the club sell and there is pressure from the Colombia national team for James to move and guarantee himself regular football, but the Madrid hierarchy want to keep him.

AS suggest that part of the reason they want to retain James is his popularity in South America and his high profile on social media; he has 10m Twitter followers, the second-most in the Real Madrid squad, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo’s 43m.

James is also seen as one of the only players Madrid have that can rival Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Javier Mascherano as a selling point to Latin America.