Rodri could soon be a Real Madrid player, but what will he bring to Jose Mourinho’s side?The Athletic reported on Friday that Madrid are working on a deal to sign the 30-year-old Manchester City and Spain midfielder. City are hopeful he will remain part of their squad for the 2026-27 season.Rodri became a Ballon d’Or winner and a World Cup champion while at City. If he did sign for Madrid, he would be returning to the city of his birth after seven years away.Here, we look at just how he could prove to be a strong tactical fit at the Bernabeu and what it means for the rest of Madrid’s team.What are Rodri’s strengths?The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner is a reference point for Manchester City and Spain: a dressing-room leader who dictates the game on the pitch.Looking at The Athletic’s player dashboard — which outlines a player’s role and key strengths — his profile is perfectly suited as the tempo controller. Punched balls through the lines are certainly within his skill set, but those circulating passes left and right are his bread and butter as he wears the opposition down into submission.
No Premier League player (with 900-plus minutes played) averaged more than Rodri’s 96.3 passes per 90 minutes in 2025-26. He is the release valve for pressure, the catalyst for ball progression, and the man you trust most often to get on the ball and make the team tick.It was no surprise, then, that City felt his absence so acutely during the months he spent sidelined last season, dealing with a series of muscular and knee problems, some of them related to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury he suffered in his right knee at the start of the previous campaign.“Rodri is an exceptional player. Everybody knows that,” then-City manager Pep Guardiola said in October 2025. “But the question isn’t simply whether he’ll return to his best after six, seven or eight months of recovery. When will the real Rodri be back? At the 2026 World Cup with Spain. That’s when you’ll see the best Rodri — and next season too.”Guardiola’s words proved prophetic.Rodri was the outstanding player at the World Cup, producing his best performances when the stakes were highest: against Portugal, Belgium, France and Argentina in the final.
