The wedding at which the signing of Rodri began to be cooked

BarcelonaThe signing of Rodrigo Hernández Rodri to Barça could not be fully explained without a wedding, that of his good friend Daniel Codina. This is the person who, along with other employees of the Blaugrana club, has not left the side of the shining Blaugrana signing since his arrival in Barcelona this Monday.

Codina is an old friend of Rodri, with whom he coincided at Manchester City, when he was in charge of managing the player care office (player's care), a position he has held at Barça since 2025: he is the head of operations and services for the first team players of the Blaugrana club. Until then, this role under Joan Laporta's management had been held by Joel González, a taekwondo practitioner from Figueres and Olympic champion in London 2012.

The relationship between Codina and Rodri is close, they have maintained a good friendship since they both coincided at the cityzen squad. And in a locker room full of Catalans and Spaniards among the technical staff and players, they quickly forged bonds. Although the footballing argument that the playing style of the winner of the 2024 Ballon d'Or fits much better with Hansi Flick's Barça than with José Mourinho's Real Madrid, this union was also decisive in understanding why Rodri ended up wearing the blaugrana.

At the end of July, after winning the World Cup, the Madrid midfielder was enjoying a few days of decompression in Begur, on the Costa Brava. He arrived a few days before the ceremony. Although he was officially on vacation, he was also working on his future. As The Athletic reported, Deco traveled to Begur to meet with the footballer. Although this town in Baix Empordà is very busy during the summer season, the Barcelona sporting director met him at the Can Pitu restaurant, away from the tourist hustle and bustle of Begur and frequented more by local residents than by long queues of tourists. In fact, no one made a fuss when the footballer and the Barcelona sporting director coincided at the restaurant.

No agreement was reached in this first in-person meeting, but Rodri began to seriously consider the opportunity to sign for Barça, having already known about Real Madrid's interest since the end of the World Cup. There would be more meetings, in Barcelona and Madrid, but the footballer already knew firsthand about the Catalan team's firm interest in signing him.

The idea began to seduce Rodri and, in fact, at the wedding of his good friend Dani Codina, held on July 25, after his first meeting with Deco in Begur, he was seen enthusiastically singing chants related to Barça. Among them, the version of Un dia de partit, a song very common among the blaugrana fans and, also, within the locker room of the Catalan team. L'ARA has had access to private videos in which Rodri is seen, napkin up, as is done in most weddings, singing some of the phrases from this chant at Hotel el Far, in Llafranc – where the wedding was held. There were several Barça employees and the feeling was shared, even though some players were not there because they were on vacation and were in Ibiza, among other destinations.

Deco first secured the player's 'yes'

The meeting between the footballer and Deco in Begur, facilitated by Codina's wedding, helps to understand the origin of the start of Barça's signing of the World Cup's best player. The blaugrana sporting director, as he has done in recent operations, first made sure to convince the player, get his yes and know that he prioritized Barça over Real Madrid. Then, the Catalan entity initiated negotiations with Manchester City.

Finally, and after two weeks of negotiations, Barça will pay the English club a transfer fee of 60 million euros fixed, 11.5 million in easily achievable variables (such as, for example, depending on the games played in the League) and 5 million euros more in case of winning the Champions League and participating in 60% of the matches playing 45 minutes or more. Rodri signed his new contract this Tuesday, which links him as a blaugrana until 2030 and he is ready to debut in an official match after a small back intervention.