James Rodriguez is the biggest star to have descended on Qatar’s football horizon in the recent times. The Colombian attacking midfielder, who has recently joined Al Rayyan, has had many achievements, at the club and country levels.

Rodriguez, noted for his high playmaking skills, was a part of success stories at top clubs, such as FC Porto, AS Monaco, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Everton. He has donned the Colombia jersey for long and won the Golden Boot award at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil for being the top scorer with six goals besides being selected as one of the best 11 players.

After completing the official signing procedures with Al Rayyan, the player was presented at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, one of the 2022 FIFA World Cup venues, in the presence of a sizeable crowd of mediapersons and Al Rayyan fans.

Rodriguez, who is gearing up to wear the Al Rayyan colours, watched from the stands Al Rayyan score their first victory in the 2021-2022 season QNB Stars League with a 1-0 verdict over Al Ahli in Week 5 the other day. He gave his takes on varied topics in an Exclusive Interview with qsl.qa.

Excerpts:

How do you feel being in Qatar? What has been your experience so far?

It has been a great experience in Qatar since I arrived here. I really like this country and I hope things will go off well for me. I think this is going to be a great experience for all. I want to be very happy here.

What’re your expectations as a player?

I’m a player who likes to win and I always set my expectations very high in order to always reach as high as possible, at a personal level as well.

How do you see the level of competition in the QNB Stars League?

It’s indeed a strong league. Everyone is in great shape. I’ll do my best and hope everything goes off well. At the end of the day, I’m a person who wants to win as many titles as possible, now for Al Rayyan club and its fans.

Al Rayyan are a big team with rich history and big tradition. How do you look forward to representing them?

I’m aware that Al Rayyan is a historic club and I’m glad that I’m representing a prestigious club. I’m here to give off my best and make our passionate fans happy. We should make it (winning titles) happen. I’ve played for many big clubs (FC Porto, AS Monaco, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Everton) in Europe and I want to bring in all that experience here, so Al Rayyan benefit from it as much as possible and feel proud of it. My duty is to help my team achieve its goals.

How do you look forward to Qatar hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2022?

Everybody knows how Qatar is moving forward towards hosting the World Cup, not only in terms of venue readiness but also introducing and implementing new technologies related to the tournament. I believe the Qatar edition is going to be the most amazing of all World Cups ever staged. With all the infrastructure and facilities, it has the potential to be such a successful tournament.