Barcelona sign Rodri from Man City in £65m deal

BREAKING: Barcelona sign Spain and World Cup-winning midfielder Rodri from Manchester City in a deal worth around £65m, on a four-year contract. The 2024 Ballon d'Or winner returns to Spanish football for the first time since 2019.

Barcelona just bought Rodri from Manchester City for sixty five million pounds.

The best midfielder of his generation, the 2024 Ballon d'Or winner, signed on a four-year deal at the Nou Camp. He's thirty, and he's going home. He hasn't played in Spain since leaving Atletico Madrid in 2019, and in between he gave City seven seasons, 298 appearances, four Premier League titles and that 2023 Champions League. And here he is this summer, captain's armband on, being named player of the tournament as Spain won the World Cup.

Sixty five million for a thirty year old coming off two injury-hit seasons sounds steep until you remember what happened last time City tried playing without him. They fell apart. Barcelona just bought the one player nobody has ever worked out how to replace.

City now have a Rodri-shaped hole, and there isn't another Rodri on the market. There never was.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at bbc.co.uk