Real Madrid executives and Manchester CIty star defensive midfielder Rodri had mutual interest in a transfer for months, but the only reason why a deal did not get done sooner is because president Florentino Perez was blocking it.
Florentino had concerns about Rodri's injury history and maybe even a grudge over the Enrique Riquelme rumors and the Vinicius Junior Ballon d'Or snub a couple of years ago. But now, after Rodri's insane World Cup performance in which he erased all doubts about his quality and how he can help Real Madrid, Florentino has apparently changed his mind thanks to the pressure behind the scenes and is willing to sign Rodri.
Spanish national team manager Luis de la Fuente has never been one to hide his feelings, including about Florentino, and his tirade about the people who doubted Rodri lacking footballing intelligence may have hit a little close to home to the Real Madrid president.
Nobody agreed with Florentino on Rodri
De la Fuente recently told reporters, via City Xtra, "With all due respect, and without wishing to offend anyone, doubting Rodri was, quite obviously, an insult to one's footballing intelligence. He's the best in the world in his position, bearing in mind we have MartÃn Zubimendi behind him, also one of the greats, surely second best in the world. But we knew we had to follow a process and meet deadlines we'd set. He [Rodri] grew stronger every match. The fact is, even at 50%, Rodri is better than a great many other players..."
Aside from the ridiculous comment about Martin Zubimendi, who does not even start every game for Arsenal at this point, being the second best in the world, everything Luis de la Fuente said about Rodri is well taken.
And even the players and other execs were surprised by how little Perez wanted to sign Rodri, which is a big reason why they tried hard to convince him, using the Golden Ball peformances against Enzo Fernandez and Aurelien Tchouameni to really sway him.
Manchester City are still trying to keep Rodri and sign the player on an expiring contract to an extension, but, at this point, the star midfielder is not really responding to the offers. He is fully expected to join Real Madrid, and Madridistas will be happy that Florentino is now on the right side of the argument of the player's quality. Now, he just needs to stay healthy, and Real need to keep the cost down.
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