Rodri had hoped for a quiet break after winning the World Cup with Spain over the summer. Instead, he found himself at the centre of one of the most fraught transfer sagas of his career, torn between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
"I would have liked to have had two or three weeks of a quiet vacation, but it was anything but," the former Manchester City midfielder told Mundo Deportivo this week.
Real Madrid, with José Mourinho leading the pursuit from the Bernabéu, pushed hard to land Rodri. In the end, though, he chose their fiercest rivals instead, and he has laid out five reasons for that decision.
Chances of Success
"I've always based my decisions on sporting considerations," Rodri said, and top of that list was "where I believe I'll be able to win."
Mourinho inherited a Real Madrid side that has gone two consecutive seasons without a major trophy, the club's longest drought in 16 years. Over that same period, Barcelona won five of the six available domestic trophies and twice went deep in the Champions League. Bookmakers and statistics providers currently favour Barcelona for a continuation of their domestic dominance and give Hansi Flick's side the edge over Real Madrid in the Champions League as well.
One blot on that European picture is Barcelona's defensive record — they have not kept a clean sheet in any of their previous 16 Champions League matches — which is where Rodri's arrival in midfield could make a genuine difference.
Happy Factor
Rodri also pointed to a better chance of being "happy" at Barcelona. There's an existing bond with the club: he attended the wedding of Dani Codina, Barcelona's chief of operations and player services, over the summer and was seen singing club chants. He has also already played alongside nine of Flick's current squad on international duty and knows Gabriel Jesus from their time together at Manchester City.
By contrast, Real Madrid currently have few Spain internationals in their ranks, a factor that reportedly shaped much of their pursuit of Rodri. The Bernabéu dressing room has also had a difficult recent history — Federico Valverde was hospitalised last season after a clash with Aurélien Tchouaméni.
Room for Growth
Rodri said the project Flick has built in Catalonia "excited me a little more" than the uncertainty around Mourinho's return to Real Madrid.
Pep Guardiola, Rodri's former manager at City, offered his own endorsement of Flick's Barcelona earlier this year: "If they play and I can see it, I sit down and watch it because you have a good time. In the end you go to the cinema, to the theater, to read a book, to a good restaurant ... What you want is to have a good time. And tell me one time that with Barça you don't have a good time."
Rodri also cited Barcelona as the place he'd "grow the most as a player." Fermín López, who has developed under Flick, backed that up: "Since he arrived he has helped me a lot both personally and football-wise. In these two years I have grown a lot with what he asks of me on the pitch."
Player Quality
Rodri also referenced "the talent" around him as a draw — though this isn't a clear edge for Barcelona. Real Madrid have four nominees for the 2026 Ballon d'Or compared to Barcelona's three, one of whom is Rodri himself.
- Barcelona (3): Pau Cubarsí, Lamine Yamal, Rodri
- Real Madrid (4): Jude Bellingham, Marc Cucurella, Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior
For all that individual quality at Real Madrid, turning it into collective success has so far eluded Carlo Ancelotti and Xabi Alonso.
The 'Family' Charm
"It wasn't an easy decision at all; saying no to Madrid isn't easy, especially since they treated me so well," Rodri said. "In the end, Deco and Hansi, along with the club's leadership, convinced me."
Rather than lean on financial terms, Barcelona's sporting director and head coach appealed to something else. "It wasn't about trying to convince you with numbers — no," Rodri explained. "It was more about soccer — about what they thought I could contribute on and off the field — and I really liked that."
"At no point did they put any pressure on me at all," Rodri added. "Everyone expressed their desire to have me on board, to work together, and to see what I could bring to the team. I really liked the way they treated me — without any anxiety. They simply conveyed their excitement about me joining their project and their understanding that they needed someone like me. And above all, I appreciated the natural way they let me know. I really liked it; it felt very familiar, like a family club, and that really appealed to me."
Real Madrid, meanwhile, have had their own internal tensions of late, from Florentino Pérez's contentious presidential election to a public rift involving Alonso and Álvaro Arbeloa.
