Chelsea prospect trades Colombia for France

We don't know much about 18-year-old Colombian Joao Rodriguez other than that he's a Chelsea prospect and well... that's about it.

In that sense he joins the likes of Jhon Pirez, Ulises Davila, and Cristian Cuevas as complete unknowns who seemingly (or definitely, in Pirez's case) won't ever get to play in the Chelsea youth teams, let alone the first-team.  Then again, we once thought the same of Bertrand Traoré, and he's quickly turning out to be someone to whom we can attach some hopes and dreams.  It helps that Traoré's in the Eredivisie now, so we can actually watch him.

Sporting Club de Bastia informs it has reached an agreement with Chelsea for the loan of young Colombian striker Joao Rodriguez...

-source: SC Bastia

This is news from Tuesday, actually, and we were all set to report it but then Hilario's retirement threw everything in turmoil and there was panic in the streets not seen since the days of the Y2K Bug.  We barely escaped to freedom; Charley Steiner saved us.

James Rodriguez spent last season on loan at Uniautónoma in the Colombian first division.  He played a few games and scored a goal.  But playing in Europe, in the French top division should provide him with a different, more visible, and probably even better challenge and playing for ex-Chelsea hero Claude Makélélé provides a nice, tangible Chelsea connection as well.  And should he play his cards right, maybe he, too, can get a hug from David Luiz like that other Colombian J. Rodriguez you may have heard of.

Let's do some low-quality YouTube video scouting: