From Ballon d'Or to broken: What next for Rodri? Man City's injury-plagued midfielder facing fight to resurrect his career

Rodri was born in Madrid and took his first steps in organised football with Rayo Majadahonda and then Atletico Madrid, but he became a professional with Villarreal. Atletico let him go in 2013 as they believed he lacked the physical presence needed to make it so, aged 17, he moved to the Yellow Submarine. Not wanting to put all his eggs in one basket, he also enrolled in a degree in Business Studies at the University of Castellon and moved into student accommodation.

And when he broke into the Villarreal first team in 2015, his fellow students were shocked to see the midfielder who was coming up against Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi each week walk past them in hallways on their way to doing laundry. "People flipped out when they saw Rodri still living in student halls when he started playing in La Liga," friend Valentin Henarejos told Marca. "He shared space with everyone. He liked to be with his friends or sit on the sofa with everyone. But of course people were shocked to see him play ping pong or put on the washing machine.

"When he got to La Liga he didn't change on a personal level, he lived the same way training, travelling to matches, resting and studying. He managed the step up well."

Rodri, who drove an Opel Corsa and had a 'half-broken' mobile phone when he was starting out, said Villarreal "gave me everything" and was "the ideal place to grow as a footballer", but he did not stick around long. Atletico signed Rodri in the summer of 2018 for €20 million just before he had turned 22, and one year later more than tripled their investment when he was sold to Manchester City for €70m (£62.5m), where he became the Cityzens' record signing at the time.

It proved to be money very well spent as Rodri helped guide City to four successive Premier League titles and scored the goal that delivered them the Champions League at long last. Having helped Spain win Euro 2024 - their first major international trophy for 12 years - he won the Ballon d'Or, the first-ever City player to do so and the first Spaniard since Luis Suarez in 1960. Not bad for an aspiring business student!

But Rodri now faces a careeer crossroads as the niggling injuries have piled up since he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in September 2024. There are genuine fears that that he will never be the same player again, certainly not the resilient athlete who could play every match and practically guarantee that his team would win whenever he was on the field.

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