Kevin De Bruyne is Manchester City's greatest ever player. Erling Haaland will hoover up the club's goalscoring records; or those he does not already possess, anyway. Bernardo Silva made the most appearances of anyone for City in the last four decades, the most under Pep Guardiola and felt the manager's favourite.
And yet perhaps the Barcelona-bound Rodri was the definitive player of Guardiola's time at the Etihad Stadium. It helped, of course, that he scored the most momentous goal, the one that finally made City champions of Europe. Rodri against Inter in Istanbul: few supporters will ever need an explanation of that.
Rodri bids farewell to Manchester City after a talismanic spell at the club (PA)
Rodri was a colossal figure but also a symbolic one. Guardiola's football stemmed from the midfield and Rodri was the controller supreme, with a pass completion rate forever in the nineties and an ability to win the ball back. He was simultaneously a constructive and destructive presence. He played in Guardiola's old position; yet he smashed through the glass ceiling for defensive midfielders.
None had won the Ballon d'Or, arguably, since Josef Masopust in 1962. Rodri did. None had ever won the World Cup's Golden Ball. Rodri did. He arrived at the Etihad Stadium with the suspicion he may have been overpriced, having to adapt from Diego Simeone's football to Guardiola's, at the end of a long search for Fernandinho's successor which had taken in midfielders as different – from each other as from him – as Fred and Jorginho.
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And yet perhaps the Barcelona-bound Rodri was the definitive player of Guardiola's time at the Etihad Stadium. It helped, of course, that he scored the most momentous goal, the one that finally made City champions of Europe. Rodri against Inter in Istanbul: few supporters will ever need an explanation of that.
Rodri bids farewell to Manchester City after a talismanic spell at the club (PA)
Rodri was a colossal figure but also a symbolic one. Guardiola's football stemmed from the midfield and Rodri was the controller supreme, with a pass completion rate forever in the nineties and an ability to win the ball back. He was simultaneously a constructive and destructive presence. He played in Guardiola's old position; yet he smashed through the glass ceiling for defensive midfielders.
None had won the Ballon d'Or, arguably, since Josef Masopust in 1962. Rodri did. None had ever won the World Cup's Golden Ball. Rodri did. He arrived at the Etihad Stadium with the suspicion he may have been overpriced, having to adapt from Diego Simeone's football to Guardiola's, at the end of a long search for Fernandinho's successor which had taken in midfielders as different – from each other as from him – as Fred and Jorginho.
#player
20 days ago
