José Mourinho confirms Real Madrid pursued Rodri before Barcelona move

José Mourinho has confirmed Real Madrid made Rodri an offer and that he spoke to him about joining the club, but claimed the player’s doubts about the transfer made him unsure about signing Spain’s World Cup-winning captain.

On the same day Rodri was presented at Barcelona after the completion of a €75m (£65.4m) move from Manchester City that the midfielder said was “always my first choice”, Mourinho insisted he would not miss him at the Santiago Bernabéu. “I spoke to him a couple of times and Real Madrid made him a very good offer,” Mourinho said in an interview with El Chiringuito.

“Without negotiating with City, the club were in contact with Rodri and made him an important offer. Rodrigo had doubts, he doubted. And his doubts created doubts in me. He is an extraordinary player and he behaved in the right way with us. I have nothing bad to say. But Real Madrid are so big that you can’t have players who have to think twice. You get in touch with a player and the player says: ‘When do I go?’ That’s how it works.”

Rodri had three offers to leave City after the World Cup, from Paris Saint-Germain, Real and Barcelona. Having ruled out PSG because he wanted to return to Spain, the 30-year-old eventually chose Barcelona, where he will join eight of his teammates from the World Cup squad. When it was put to Mourinho that the move could be seen as a victory for Barcelona over their great rivals, he replied: “Victories are on the pitch, trophies.”

Real have not signed an alternative midfielder, despite their pursuit of Rodri and that being a clear hole in a team that have failed to win a major trophy in the past two seasons. Mourinho feels sure, however, that he does not need to bring in any further players. “I am not saying that there will not be any more signings because the market is still open, but if you ask me directly whether the squad is complete, for me yes it is,” said the 63-year-old at the start of his second stint managing the club. “It’s complete, closed. I like [my squad] a lot.

“I don’t miss Rodrigo. We have solutions, we have quality, we have players who maybe you look at and you judge them on what they have done but I like to think that I have the ability to improve players. A player that is one thing today can be a different player tomorrow.”