José Luis Rodríguez Francis (born 19 June 1998), commonly known as Puma, is a Panamanian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Serbian SuperLiga The Serbian Super League ( sr, Супер лига Србије / Super liga Srbije), referred to as the Mozzart Bet Super League ( sr, Моцарт Бет Супер лига / Mozzart Bet Super liga) for sponsorship reasons, is a Serbian profes ...

club

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...

and the Panama national team.

Personal life

Rodríguez grew up in

El Chorrillo El Chorrillo is a corregimiento within Panama City, in Panamá District, Panamá Province, Panama with a population of 18,302 as of 2010. History It was founded April 29, 1915, and was originally populated by immigrants working on the constructio ...

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

and is the brother of retired Chorrillo captain Marcos Villarreal. He was nicknamed "Cocobolo" at a young age for his short hair.

Club career

Rodríguez played for hometown club Chorrillo in his youth. In the 2015–16 season of the

Liga Panameña de Fútbol The Liga Panameña de Fútbol (LPF) ( en, Panamanian Football League) is the top division football league in Panama. Until 2009, the league was named ''Asociación Nacional Pro Fútbol (ANAPROF)''. Competition format The league's season is divide ...

, he made his debut on 17 July 2015 in a 0–1 away loss against

Atlético Chiriquí Club Atlético Chiriquí is a Panamanian football team playing in Liga Panameña de Fútbol. It is based in David, Chiriquí and was founded on June 18, 2002 by Luis Denis Arce. Their home stadium is Estadio San Cristóbal. History Atlético C ...

. His first and only goal of the season came on 2 April 2016 in a 3–2 away win against Alianza, scoring the winning goal for Chorrillo in the 90th minute. In 2016, Rodríguez moved to the under-21 team of Belgium club

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghent ** .gent, a ...

on loan with an option to buy. On 9 December 2016, Gent signed Rodríguez on a permanent deal, with a contract lasting until 2019. In September 2018 he signed for Croatian club Istra 1961. On 1 February 2019, Rodríguez joined

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually abbreviated to Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the ...

and would play for their B-team. He made his first team – and

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

– debut on 10 July of the following year, replacing

Joselu José Luis Mato Sanmartín (; born 27 March 1990), known as Joselu (), is a Spanish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker for La Liga club RCD Espanyol, Espanyol. Joselu be ...

in a 0–2 away loss against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

. On 4 September 2020, Rodríguez renewed his contract with Alavés until 2022, and was immediately loaned to

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

side

CD Lugo Club Deportivo Lugo is a Spanish football team based in Lugo, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Founded on 8 July 1953, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at '' Estadio Anxo Carro''. History The new board of directors was o ...

for the season. On 30 July of the following year, he moved to fellow league team

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, P ...

also in a temporary deal. On 15 August 2022, Rodríguez signed a four-year contract with

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

side

F.C. Famalicão Futebol Clube de Famalicão, commonly known as Famalicão, is a Portuguese association football, football club from Vila Nova de Famalicão. Founded on 21 August 1931, its senior team currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top tier of Portugu ...

International career

Rodríguez was called up to the Panama under-17 team in 2014, scoring on 3 March 2015 against

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

in the

2015 CONCACAF U-17 Championship The 2015 CONCACAF U-17 Championship was a scheduled age-restricted international association football tournament organised by CONCACAF. The competition was used to determine the four CONCACAF representatives at the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chil ...

. On 14 May 2018, Rodríguez was included in Panama's preliminary squad for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

, the country's first ever

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

. Rodríguez made his international debut for

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

on 29 May 2018 in a 0–0 friendly home draw against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. The following day, Rodríguez was included in Panama's final 23-man World Cup squad. Rodríguez made his World Cup debut in Panama's opening match on 18 June 2018 in a 0–3 loss to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, starting the match before being substituted in the 63rd minute for Ismael Díaz.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Panama's goal tally first.''

References

External links

* * *
José Luis Rodríguez
at LaLiga {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez, Jose Luis 1998 births Living people Footballers from Panama City Panamanian men's footballers Club Deportivo Universitario players K.A.A. Gent players NK Istra 1961 players Deportivo Alavés B players Deportivo Alavés players CD Lugo players Sporting de Gijón players F.C. Famalicão players Croatian Football League players Liga Panameña de Fútbol players La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Panamanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Croatia Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal 2018 FIFA World Cup players 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2024 Copa América players Panama men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders