One afternoon, rarefied in Parisgave rise to a historic evening for Spanish football in general and Rodri especially. The player of Manchester City and from the Spanish team he received the baton of Luis Suarez and became, 60 years later, the second Golden Ball men’s national football.
A triumph, elusive for Spanish football, which recognizes the normality of a footballer profile in danger of extinction. Rodri is, in addition to an exceptional footballera normal guy. He has no social networks, no tattoos on his body, he is not beautiful, he plays with his shirt tucked in, he does not defend social movements and his image is not the protagonist of major advertising campaigns.
It represents simplicity in a world, that of football, so extravagant throughout the seasons. A life far from the spotlight that he has lived since his entry into the career of Atletico Madrid in 2007. The welcome was given by Fran Alcoy, Rodri’s first coach in the red and white academy. “No one knew Rodri, our team was his first team. It’s an honor to see him win the Ballon d’Or. I am proud as a coach and as a Spaniard. This is a reality of world football. He became the best pivot in the world,” explains Fran, whose smile does not disappear from his face during his conversation with this newspaper.
Alcoy was his “discoverer” of football. The first which placed him as a pivot during his time in youth football. He alternated matches in which he also played in eight, but it was in the pivot that he made the differences which, over the years, certified his consecration as Ballon d’Or.
“When I trained him, he was smaller than the others, he hadn’t yet developed the bodies of the others, but It was clear that this was his position.. There, you have to be intelligent to understand the game from the post. You have to run the ball and he understood that perfectly, which is not easy to do. With the ball he played still and without the ball he pressed as hard as anyone,” Fran Alcoy recalled to OKDIARIO.
In this class he coincided with footballers currently established in the European elite, such as Lucas Hernández. “He’s a differential player. I had top players on the same team, but he was pure talent. For his age, he did things that didn’t suit him. You realize this is not normal. He was twelve years old and everything I explained to him, he understood it the first time. “He was always very intelligent,” Alcoy says.
The figure of Rodri has crossed borders since its formation. “I remember we played international tournaments against the best youth teams in the world and it was differential. This attracted attention. Rivals have noticed me since I was little. He was very good from the start and, although smaller than the others because he had not yet evolved, you could see that he was differential,” Fran remembers.
Height was one of the triggers for his departure from Atlético Madrid to Villarreal. He returned to the red and white team and one season was enough to attract the attention of Guardiola who made him the anchor of his Manchester City. A journey marked by simplicity, a sense of responsibility and a position, that of pivot‘discovered’ by Fran for which Rodri himself thanked him on several occasions.
“I love that they marked the debut with me. I gave him the guidelines I thought he should follow. Something could help him,” Alcoy said with a laugh. “Later, he had great coaches, but it’s true that I was the first to put him in the pivot. I remember him being very intelligent. I understood everything the first time. There are footballers with whom we spend a year and they never stop learning and he, at twelve years old, understood everything on the first try,” he adds.
Rodri continues to break the molds. Far from media noise and without filler coverage. With the same ease with which he took the plane during the week to go from Manchester to Castellón take university exams and return to England in the afternoon. Rodri, the simple and intelligent Ballon d’Or.
