Rodri's normal life in Barcelona

BarcelonaIn a promotional video that Barça has shared on its social media, Adeyemi and Gordon joke by pulling their shorts down below their waist: "That's how Lamine wears them," they joke. In another part, they show the video to Lamine Yamal, who laughs and replies: "Everyone will end up wearing them like that, you'll see. Well, everyone except Rodri." The Madrid-born midfielder is a rara avis in the elite football universe: he never wears extravagant looks, he doesn't dye his hair or get trendy or daring haircuts, he doesn't have tattoos and he wears his shorts tucked in to play, like in more vintage football. He also doesn't have social media.

"One of the things that has always characterized him is that he is a person who goes unnoticed. He is discreet. Mature and hardworking," recalls to ARA Luis Callarisa, who was a university professor of the current Barça footballer. This is another characteristic that differentiates him from the bulk of professional footballers, having completed a university degree.

He comes from a family in which his father is an engineer and his mother is a marketing director. The couple, who raised the footballer in Madrid, came from León, where Rodri's grandfather worked as a doctor. His two younger siblings have also been to university, one on a scholarship in the United States and the other in Manchester.

Rodri is a graduate in Business Administration and Management (ADE) from the Jaume I University (UJI) in Castellón, where he started studying at age 18, when he was playing in the Villarreal youth system. "He was in the elite athlete program: students who, due to their characteristics and sports calendar, have to combine it with the academic one," recounts Callarisa.

He soon made the leap to professional football. "At certain moments he could not submit an assignment or go to an exam, or he had to miss a mandatory attendance class, and that is justified. In his case, he didn't even need to say it: hundreds of thousands of people saw it, because it was a Champions League, Europa League, or League match during the week."

He wanted to continue his studies in Castellón

Before finishing his studies, he signed for Atlético de Madrid when he was 21 years old. At that time, Callarisa, head of the Business Administration degree, suggested he transfer his academic records to Madrid, but Rodri declined due to the trust he had in the professor and the academic planning he was following. "He told me: 'I feel calm with you, we plan it and things more or less work out'," recalls Callarisa. Despite trading Madrid for Manchester when he signed for City a year later, the midfielder continued his studies at the same university.

In parallel with his sporting success, he went about covering the academic stages. It was difficult for him to pass a course per year, but the success rate was "approximately above 60%," explains Callarisa. "It took him a little more time, but he finished his Business Administration degree. When he was in Madrid, he would come by the AVE [high-speed train] to take exams; when he was in Manchester, he would take a plane and then the AVE. He defended his final degree project online and did his internship in City's marketing department," narrates the professor. "He was clear that, apart from football, there had to be something more".

During his university years, he met Laura Iglesias, who remains his partner. Iglesias, who also maintains a discreet profile – she has private social media accounts –, was studying medicine and currently works as a surgeon. Although both she and he have had successful professional careers that have led them to have to separate at times, the relationship has been maintained without the need to fulfill the cliché of the footballer's wife who follows him everywhere.

The anecdote of the Opel Corsa

Although he was already receiving a significant salary at City, when he was playing in England he explained in an interview that he was very satisfied with being a modest person in his expenses and that he felt very happy driving an Opel Corsa. In fact, on that occasion he also explained that his austerity had brought him some jokes in the City dressing room from his teammates.

It was in Manchester where he met Dani Codina, who currently works at Barça, and who in the summer got married in a wedding that became significant because around it the signing of the Madrid native began to be cooked up. Rodri and Codina became close when the latter was in charge of managing the City's player's care office (player's care), a position he has held at the Catalan club since 2025: he is the head of operations and services for the first team's players.

Regarding his dressing room teammates, the circle he feels most comfortable in is the one formed by Eric, Olmo, Joan and Pedri, of which Kounde and Gordon are also part. He already knew many of them from the Spanish national team, with which he won the World Cup and was distinguished as the best footballer of the tournament.

In 2024 he also lifted the European Championship, with a celebration in Madrid that earned him a one-match ban, along with Álvaro Morata, from UEFA for chanting "Gibraltar is Spanish". It is one of the few times that he has been in the news for a matter that is not strictly sporting. This Sunday and after rotating against PSG on the explicit recommendation of the coach Pepe Conde, Rodri will experience his first 'clásico' as a 'blaugrana'.