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 lea ...

who plays as a

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for Juárez 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 constructi ...

Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...

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; ) 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 divided into two tournaments called t ...

, he made his debut on 17 July 2015 in a 0–1 away loss against Atlético Chiriquí. 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 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 known as 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 Basque ...

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 as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

– debut on 10 July of the following year, replacing Joselu in a 0–2 away loss against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

. 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, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

side

CD Lugo Club Deportivo Lugo is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Lugo, in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. Founded on 8 July 1953, it plays in Primera Federación, holding home games at ''Estadio Anxo ...

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 is a Spanish professional association football, football club from Gijón, Principality of Asturias. Founded on 1 July 1905, it plays in the ...

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

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

side

F.C. Famalicão Futebol Clube de Famalicão, commonly known as Famalicão, is a Portuguese professional 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 tie ...

International career

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

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

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 national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

, the country's first ever

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

. Rodríguez made his international debut for

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

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

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. 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, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, 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.''

Honours

Panama *

CONCACAF Nations League The CONCACAF Nations League (, ) is an association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its secondary continental tournament for men's senior national teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The tournament takes pla ...

runner-up: 2024–25

References

External links

* * *
José Luis Rodríguez
at LaLiga {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez, Jose Luis 1998 births Footballers from Panama City Living people 21st-century Panamanian sportsmen Men's association football midfielders Panamanian men's footballers Panama men's youth international footballers Panama men's international 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 Red Star Belgrade footballers FC Juárez footballers Liga Panameña de Fútbol players Croatian Football League players La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Primeira Liga players Serbian SuperLiga players Liga MX players 2018 FIFA World Cup players 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2024 Copa América players 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Panamanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Croatia Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Serbia Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Serbia Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Mexico