Rodrigo Hernández, 'Rodri', (Madrid, 1996), does not arrive at Barcelona as just another signing. It was staged by president Joan Laporta raising his fist in the air after eating with the player at the Botafumeiro restaurant in Barcelona after signing the contract that binds him to the club until 2031 after a payment of a maximum of 60 million fixed euros to Manchester City, which could reach 75 in variables. In exchange, Barcelona takes the winner of the Ballon d'Or in 2024, and, above all, a piece that fits like a glove in Hansi Flick's Barça team. A humble soccer player, raised in a family of professionals, a university student, without social networks and with a surgeon partner, who has maintained a life away from the noise of soccer. He will defend the number 16 number. These are the reasons for his signing.
The coach wanted to incorporate him as soon as he heard about the call from Rodri's agent to Deco. Flick above all wanted him to give the team the control, hierarchy and balance that a 30-year-old player who lands after seven seasons at Manchester City can provide as one of the best midfielders in world football.
His football impact goes far beyond his position. Rodri is a midfielder who organizes, provides continuity to possession, interprets spaces and allows the team to play many minutes in the opposite field. His ability to protect the backs of insiders and his reading to speed up or pause the game fit especially well with Flick's Barça. At the club they compare him to Sergio Busquets, a role model that Rodri has always admired. Now both will also meet in Barcelona after Busquets joins the reserve team's coaching staff.
Beyond the style, the numbers explain part of Rodri's dimension. Between February 2023 and May 2024 he went 74 consecutive games with Manchester City without losing, a streak that FIFA considers a world record for individual unbeatenness in club matches. There were 58 wins and 16 draws. Rodri was also the captain who won the treble with Guardiola's Manchester City, including the Champions League, with his goal in the final in Istanbul in the 2022-23 season.
Frenkie de Jong's injury has also left a void in a key position and the arrival of Rodri offers Flick a top-level solution to complete the midfield.
Rodri also brings something that Barça needed: hierarchy. He arrives as a world champion, Ballon d'Or winner and a reference for the Spanish team. In addition, he will meet several teammates with whom he shares an international dressing room, including Pedri, Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, Eric Garcia and Joan Garcia, in addition to Fermín, whom he also knows very well from the national team. Rodri arrives to add and also to transmit his experience to younger players like Marc Bernal. “He will be able to grow at my side, I am here to add,” he explained in his presentation.
His arrival also has a symbolic component. Rodri has chosen Barça after rejecting the possibility of playing for Real Madrid. He himself defined his arrival at the club as “a dream.” Hence the player's call to the Real Madrid sports leadership, including a conversation with Florentino Pérez to thank him for the interest and the offer, but making his priorities clear: to wear the shirt of a club whose football style is more recognizable to him, as it is similar to that of Manchester City. "In the end, the first process was to understand that a stage had ended and that I had to look for a next step. This was the best option. My decisions revolve around sporting challenges. That's where things go."
His landing is also a blow for Florentino Pérez, who had agreed to the signing, although he never seemed like a footballer to his liking, and even less so after becoming one of the electoral assets of Enrique Riquelme's candidacy in the last elections for the presidency.
Rodri arrives after having undergone surgery for a slight back problem. Manchester City confirmed at the end of July that the footballer had undergone surgery after suffering from discomfort for some time. More than an operation, it was a therapy to free an area that grabbed the nerve when sitting. Rodri will not need rehabilitation from an operation that did not require hospitalization, but rather a simple outpatient admission. The operation was considered minor and Barça has closely followed its evolution.
After his performance from less to more in the World Cup, there are also no doubts about his recovery from the anterior cruciate ligament injury and the damage to the meniscus in his right knee suffered in September 2024, which kept him off the playing fields for much of the season. The player has already passed the medical check-up in Barcelona.
Rodri comes from a working family and, above all, very discreet. His parents are Antonio Hernández, an engineer, and Elena Cascante, a marketing director. Both came from León and moved to Madrid, where Rodri was born. He also has two younger brothers, Gonzalo and Álvaro. Gonzalo, who also played soccer, studied in the United States on a scholarship, while Álvaro has studied in Manchester.
The family has given great importance to training: Rodri studied Business Administration and Management at the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón while developing his football career. There he met his partner, Laura Iglesias, who studied medicine and later became a surgeon. They have been together for about a decade and maintain a very discreet relationship. Rodri publicly thanked him for his support when he won the Ballon d'Or in 2024.
Barça signs Rodri to gain control, hierarchy and, nevertheless, enthusiasm.
