When he plays for Manchester City and Spain, Rodri excels in making the difficult things seem simple.
And in a personal article for The Players' Tribune the four-time Premier League champion and UEFA EURO 2024 winner lifts the lid on a life off the pitch that is as simple as his actions appear on it.
Staying grounded
"When I leave the pitch, my goal is to always make sure that my feet are on the floor," says Rodri, who adds that he gets pigeonholed for going to university. "I think sometimes people misunderstand that part of me.
"Obviously, as footballers, there is so much marketing and media that you become a kind of character. For me, it’s 'the nerd'. I remember I had to do a photo shoot one time, and they said, 'Hey, you know what would be cool? Put these books under your arm. Pretend that you’re going to the library.'
"When the photos came out, I had my friends from school texting me, 'Come onnnn, man. Are you serious? What is this s***? You don’t even like to read! You’re not a real nerd!'
"Don’t always believe what you see on social media! Reality is always more complicated.
"My whole life, I have lived between these two worlds. One football, the other the 'real world'.
"Sometimes the boys make fun of me for being 'normal'. It’s funny because if you asked my missus or even my mum, they would say that I am the furthest thing from normal. When it comes to football, I am an addict. If I am normal it is probably in the sense that I don’t care about social media or £400 trainers. Since I was a kid, I have simply been chasing a feeling.
"I didn’t say, 'Oh, I want to be a footballer so I can have a Ferrari.' No, it was because what my heroes did on the pitch made me feel alive."
That difference from the approach of other players was apparent in Rodri's early days at Man City, when he FaceTimed his partner, Laura, whom he met at university, from the team coach post-match.
"Since I’m a footballer and she is a doctor, we had to get used to being long-distance for many years," he says. "When we won, it was no problem, because the boys would be rowdy and celebrating and they wouldn’t notice. But when we lost, I was still just my normal self. I had no filter.
"The first time, [Sergio] Aguero and [Nicolas] Otamendi pulled me aside and they said, 'Man, you can’t be talking like that on the bus! Pep can hear you! Everyone can hear you!'
"But after every match, I would call her. No filter.
"We were like two teenagers. Everyone was so annoyed. They would be trying to grab the phone from me: 'He will call you back! Rodri, hang up the phone! He has to go now! Bye-bye!'
"They wanted to kill me, but I didn’t care!"
To read about how what it's like for Rodri to play under Pep Guardiola, and how he was inspired by the Spanish national team while watching in the woods in the US, you can read the article in full here.
