Top 5 on-loan stars that are killing it this season
Loan signings never really get as much attention as permanent ones do, and understandably so. Most players who leave a club on loan are either young, inexperienced or surplus to requirements.
But sometimes, loan moves also become the turning point of a player's career, who subsequently end up signing permanently for the new team, or return to succeed at the parent club.
They can either make or break a player's career. For example, David Beckham spent a brief spell at Preston North End in 1994. And then of course, there's Radamel Falcao, who had probably the worst loan spell of all time at Old Trafford (and then at Stamford Bridge).
Here, we take a look at 5 current on-loan players who are tearing it up at their respective clubs:
#5 James Rodriguez (Bayern Munich - on loan from Real Madrid)
Oh, how it could have turned out for James.
Having arrived in Madrid on the back of an incredibly successful World Cup campaign with Colombia, the fleet-footed playmaker never really made his mark in the Spanish capital.
Real's struggles this season, however, seem to indicate that his importance for the Spanish champions was perhaps underrated.
For James, himself, the loan move to Bayern seems to have been the right decision at this stage in his career. He's very much an integral part of a reinvented Bavarian side under Jupp Heynckes, having scored 2 goals and assisted 3 more in the Bundesliga.
He initially struggled for game time under his former Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti. But following the Italian's sacking after the humiliation in Paris, and the appointment of cult hero Heynckes, he's become a first-team regular.
He's been utilised in both midfield and attack, and has performed consistently enough for Bayern to seriously consider making his move permanent.
If and when they decide to do so for €35.2 million, that price would be a bargain for James Rodriguez in this inflated market.