Rodri's normal life in Barcelona

BarcelonaIn a promotional video shared by Barça 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 has no tattoos and he tucks his shirt into his shorts to play, like in more vintage football. He also has no 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 Luis Callarisa to ARA, 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 attended 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 began his studies at 18, while playing for the Villarreal youth academy. "He was in the elite athlete program: students who, due to their characteristics and their sports calendar, have to combine it with the academic one," recounts Callarisa.

He soon made the leap to professional football. "At certain times he could not submit an assignment or go to an exam, or he had to miss a class with mandatory attendance, and that is justified. In his case, he didn't even need to say it himself: hundreds of thousands of people saw it, because it was a Champions League, Europa League, or La Liga 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 ADE 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 changing Madrid for Manchester when he signed for City a year later, the midfielder continued with his studies at the same university.

In parallel to his sporting success, he went on to complete his academic stages. It was difficult for him to pass one course per year, but the success rate was "approximately above 60%," explains Callarisa. "It took a little more time, but he finished the ADE degree. When he was in Madrid he would come by the AVE to take his exams; when he was in Manchester, he would take a plane and then the AVE. He defended his final thesis 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 for the cliché of the footballer's wife who follows him everywhere to be fulfilled.

The anecdote of the Opel Corsa

Although he was already receiving a significant salary at City, when he played 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 earned him some jokes in the City dressing room from his teammates.

It was in Manchester that he met Dani Codina, who currently works at Barça, and who got married in the summer in a wedding that made headlines because the signing of the Madrid native began to be cooked up around it. Rodri and Codina became close friends when the latter was in charge of managing the City's player care office (player 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 in which he feels most comfortable is the one formed by Eric, Olmo, Joan and Pedri, which also includes Kounde and Gordon. He already knew many of them from the Spanish national team, with which he won the World Cup where he was distinguished as the best player of the tournament.

In 2024 he also lifted the European Championship, with a celebration in Madrid that earned him a one-match suspension, together with Álvaro Morata, from UEFA for chanting "Gibraltar is Spanish". It is one of the few times 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.