Barça makes Rodri's signing official: "He will not need adaptation"

BarcelonaIf in the most glorious eras of contemporary Barça the midfield leader was Sergio Busquets, now the Barça club has not only strengthened itself with a Ballon d'Or winner and the best footballer in the World Cup, but has also done so with the figure that most closely resembles Sergio Busquets: Rodrigo Hernández is now officially a Culer. Barça will pay Manchester City a transfer fee of 60 million euros fixed, 11.5 million in easily achievable variables (such as, for example, depending on the matches played in the League), and 5 million more euros in case of winning the Champions League. The Madrid-born pivot has signed until 2030.

Rodri had decided that he wanted to leave City this very summer, which is why he was willing to listen to offers. He asked for an unattainable figure (20 million euros net per year) to renew, aware that it was impossible for the sky-blue team to accept it. He let Real Madrid court him, but Florentino Pérez was not willing to make a big financial effort to buy him. That's when Barça entered the scene. The player was clear: he prefers to play for Hansi Flick and with the bulk of his teammates from the world champion Spanish national team.

"It's a very special day for me. It has been a difficult decision. First, to leave City, where I have been very happy and I will be eternally grateful to them. Also to facilitate my departure," Rodri began at his presentation. "I have chosen Barça, for its football and for its values. I had other options [Real Madrid], but Barça was my first option." He also referred to Hansi Flick: "I have spoken more with Deco and Jan [Laporta], but I consider him a transparent person, who tells you things straight." Rodri, in a brief appearance, concluded that "Barça is getting closer and closer to winning the Champions League."

Rodri's fit at Barça

The fit of the Madrid native at Barça seems destined to work. Carles Planchart, who has spent much of his professional career as an analyst at City, knows him well. The Catalan coach, in conversation with ARA, has no doubt that "it is the profile that Barça needed to give it balance between offensive and defensive transitions". "Barça has a midfield with very offensive, not very physical and not very defensive players. That's why Eric, when they put him as a defensive midfielder, balanced the team more defensively. Especially in the Champions League, when you compete with teams of great physical power or man-to-man defenses, Barça has suffered and Rodri, here, will help a lot".

For his part, former Olympic athlete Martí Perarnau and author, among others, of books analyzing Pep Guardiola's football work, believes that Rodri will fit into Barça from the first minute: "He is the type of player who barely needs to adapt to Barça's game because he understands it perfectly. He has practiced it for years at City, which is an identical concept, played with its own nuances because the players are different, but nothing more. He has played it in the Spanish national team, full of Barça players." Perarnau warns, however, that he is a footballer – and even more so after the last surgery he had on his back after the World Cup – "diesel": "He needs matches, minutes, game time and little by little." Rodri has said that he "is already ready to play".

Sergio Busquets' successor

The comparison with Busquets is recurrent. "Busquets, for Barça's game, at Pep's time, was the key player – Planchart assures. There were few people who had such a clear 360-degree vision and control of the game and the tempo of the match. But football has changed and we are talking about a very high physical demand. Before it was very much about finding spaces, reading where they were and now, the physical demand implies almost athlete-like conditions," expresses the analyst. "It is a privilege to be compared to Busquets. We have common characteristics and also differences. I have always admired him. He is a friend, a teammate and, above all, a great role model," said Rodri at his presentation.

Perarnau adds: "By role, they are two very similar players, who structure the game. However, by characteristics, they are different. Busquets was a player who understood that by staying still and away from his teammates, he organized the game best. On the other hand, Rodri has a tendency to move a bit too much and, in any case, to move more than Busquets. Surely if we looked at the kilometers run by Busquets, they were an average normal. With Rodri, the accumulation of kilometers throughout the match is much higher." The writer concludes that this is a difference in "essence" of the two pivots, but qualifies that the Premier League has had an influence: "Because more kilometers are run in general".

Pep Guardiola had to work a lot with Rodri

Planchart explains how Rodri became one of the best players on the planet. "Pep has made him better because he plays in the position where he was a specialist. He has helped him improve a lot in aspects like game interpretation and positioning and reading football: knowing whether to receive the ball or if it's better to move away to create space. Fundamental concepts for a pivot in teams like City, Barça or the Spanish national team".

Guardiola evolved Rodri and Rodri evolved City. "He arrived very young, at 23 years old. He arrived as a replacement for Fernandinho and Rodri's first two years were weak. He struggled to adapt after Villarreal and Atlético de Madrid. He tended to resolve footballing situations through physicality – explains Perarnau – and they had to work a lot, Pep and the entire technical staff, to make him understand the positional midfield concepts that Pep wanted. And he has ended up being a crucial, decisive player. In fact, when he injured his cruciate ligaments, City's decline began. It was structural".