How Barcelona have pulled off the transfer of the summer by signing Rodri… despite fans in Spain being convinced he was set for bitter rivals Real Madrid

It seemed for a very long time that the fairytale of the summer, the one about the king returning to his castle, would enter its final chapter within the walls of the Bernabeu Stadium.

That has been the narrative everyone has heard for at least the last year.

‘And after Diomande… Rodri ,’ read a headline in Spanish outlet Marca earlier this month. ‘At Real Madrid, there is great optimism regarding the arrival of the Spanish midfielder, the crowning achievement of a spectacular project spearheaded by Jose Mourinho,’ its author wrote.

A news article in a different Spanish publication, published more recently, was even more bombastic.

‘The City player has no doubts and is only considering one option. If he ends up leaving Manchester, there is only one possible destination for him: Real Madrid.’

And it makes sense that so many predicted that this would be the outcome. Why wouldn’t the World Cup-winning Spain captain, who turned 30 in June and is desperate to leave England and return home, choose the bright lights of the world’s biggest club?

Yet, after months of assumptions and increasingly confident reports, Rodri has chosen Barcelona instead. The decision has blindsided many in Spain, where a return to the capital had long been viewed as a near inevitability.

After all, the Bernabeu is 20 miles from the midfielder’s hometown of Villanueva de la Canada where, it seems, some of his family are still based. And what we do know is that the main reason Rodri wants to move home is because of family reasons.

Not only that, but it seems there are even some Real Madrid fans in Rodri’s family. A dig back through the archives and it doesn’t take long to stumble across a picture of one of his brothers in the famous white, blue and gold strip of Los Blancos. Despite Rodri having played for rivals Atletico Madrid in the past, the ties to the Madridistas are unavoidable.

Yet on Tuesday night, he sealed his £65.4m move to Barcelona – and insisted it was what he had always wanted. ‘I’d like to say that I’m very happy to be here,’ he said. ‘It’s a very special day, a very important new chapter in my career. Barcelona is a fantastic club, a global benchmark for its approach to football and the values it represents. I had other options, but Barcelona was my first choice, and I made that clear.’ 

While Real Madrid looked like the obvious destination from a distance, the more you examine Rodri’s character and priorities, the easier it becomes to understand why Barcelona ultimately won out. Because if there’s one thing most of us know about Rodri, it is that he doesn’t want you to know very much about Rodri.

There is no Twitter feed or Instagram page or frankly any form of public persona. Nowhere to see where he has been on holiday or what, if any, his pets look like. No post-gym updates on how he is feeling after having back surgery at the end of July.

And crucially, nowhere to give insight into what Rodri has been thinking about his next destination, beyond the varnished, pre-meditated sentences presented to the media, which have been few and far between.

When asked whether his childhood at Atletico would be standing in the way of a move to Real Madrid, he left the door ajar: ‘There are other players who’ve taken that path. Not directly, but over time. You can’t turn down the best clubs in the world.’

But this was hardly Enzo Fernandez’s conspicuous flirtation (‘I really like Madrid’). It was a nod to the fact that, of course, he would entertain a conversation.

The rest of his close circle has been watertight too. The little you do find amounts to a brother’s LinkedIn page and his girlfriend Laura Iglesias’ private Instagram page, limited to just 500 followers. Love Island presenter Maya Jama, Ruben Dias’ former girlfriend, is one of the few allowed access into Iglesias’ secluded world.

When you tot all of this up and look at what we do know about Rodri and his obsession with keeping his private life private, his feet on the floor and nurturing his self-professed ‘addiction’ to football, then Barcelona suddenly makes a lot more sense.

Real Madrid is fame: the glitz, glamour and Galacticos. Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham. Barcelona, on the other hand, is pure, unadulterated football. Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola and Lionel Messi. Thinkers and artists who see football as an idea as much as the trophies in the cabinet.

A couple of years ago Rodri was told that his national team-mate Alvaro Morata said he would have won the Ballon d’Or sooner had he marketed himself better. His reply?

‘But I don’t play football for that. Maybe people would like me to be more marketable but I understand football differently. I know how it works so I don’t get frustrated if (I get overlooked). If one day someone wants to reward the work, that’s welcome, but it doesn’t bother me at all.’

At Barcelona, Guardiola’s disciple of tiki-taka and positional play will acclimatise perfectly, dictating tempo and using his flawless distribution and reading of the game in Hansi Flick’s well-oiled machine. Seven of his World Cup-winning team-mates, five of whom joined him in the final, are set to become his club team-mates too.

It wouldn’t be unbelievable to think that Guardiola would have had a couple of words with his talisman about the perks of playing at the Nou Camp over the years. The great manager’s departure from City last summer merely set the wheels in motion.

Rodri’s age and price were an initial concern for Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, and while his performances at the World Cup had him convinced he should sign him, clearly not enough for City to snap their hand off at the offer.

Barcelona sporting director Deco caught wind that negotiations had failed to accelerate, and after deep-lying midfielder Frenkie de Jong returned from the World Cup injured, this was the moment to step in.

Barca’s initial proposal was understood to be closer to £40million, below City’s valuation. But once Rodri informed Real Madrid that Barcelona was his choice, it merely became a matter of cutting a deal.

City will be pleased that they managed to get £65.4m for him, considering his age. After a difficult last season for the club in which he struggled in his return from an ACL injury, Rodri rebounded in dazzling style at the World Cup. If he is going to kick on into the new season, it remains to be seen for how long.

They still want an experienced player to come in after he goes, and that is even after they fork out around £80million for 18-year-old Ayyoub Bouaddi.

In a message to City fans on the club’s website upon leaving, Rodri wrote: ‘I found that saying goodbye is one of the most difficult things in life, but I am going to try. I knew I came into a top team, but I never thought we could be able to create the legacy we made winning trophies, fans around the world, love and respect.

‘We made an example to inspire the next generations not only because the success, also because the way we did it. And the fans were with us every step of the way.

‘City didn’t just make me grow as a player. They made me grow as a human. I saw my brother graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University. I could see my girlfriend working for the NHS.

‘Manchester shaped my whole life. It’s time to say goodbye, thanks to the club, the fans, the staff and my team-mates. This journey couldn’t be the same without you, my heart will always be blue.’

Now they must also adapt to what’s next, and life without a man who has arguably been one of their most important ever signings. In just seven years his trophy cabinet boasts four Premier Leagues, three League Cups, two FA Cups, a Champions League, and a FIFA Club World Cup, if you’ll count it.

Across his 298 matches, he has averaged 77 minutes per game, a figure which would be higher if it weren’t for the careful management of his comeback following his return in 2025 from that knee injury. But more than that, he is a leader in the dressing room, and Maresca is already hinting at needing more experienced heads in to balance his young squad in his and Bernardo Silva and John Stones’ absence.

Back in 2018, after Rodri had spent an impressive first season in La Liga with Villarreal, Barcelona, on the lookout for a Sergio Busquets successor, looked to sign him. 

But Atletico Madrid wanted their increasingly impressive academy graduate back, and so Rodri moved back to the capital, and a year later he was Guardiola’s in rainy Manchester. Barcelona have no intention of making the same mistake again. 

And, of course, plenty of Madridistas are now insisting they never wanted him anyway.