Spanish ‘regista’ Rodri in Nations League final after long season: ‘Risky for players’
NOS Football–
He drove a used Opel Corsa until recently. His girlfriend, who wants to be a surgeon, he met in college. He himself lived on a campus there in a dorm room while studying business economics so as not to miss a class.
And he shot Manchester City to the first-ever Champions League victory in club history last Saturday.
Rodri (26) can win his fourth prize of the season tonight, after the “treble” with City, when he beats the Croats with Spain in the Nations League final. The final match of a long and successful soccer year.
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Rodri with the Champions League cup -
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Rodri celebrates his winning goal in the CL final
The humble Spanish playmaker never tires, they sometimes say. But even Rodri thinks the number of games soccer players play in a season is crazy.
Rodri once dove into it himself. How many he played this season? “I think 57 or 58 games. (There were 63, ed.) Football is like that these days. I think it’s too many. You can’t make the players play that many games, even with the World Cup still at the end of last year,” Rodri said at the press conference a day before the Nations League final.
“Sometimes it’s risky for the player. So that has to be looked at,” Rodri said. “But we just focus on the finals.”
In it, Rodri meets a 37-year-old Croatian in midfield with a velvet right foot and lungs of a horse. Frenkie de Jong couldn’t keep up with the level of Luka Modric. Now it is up to Rodri, for several seasons the linchpin of Pep Guardiola’s game, to show if he can do it.
The 11-year-old younger Rodri speaks full of admiration for Modric. “I hope to be as fit as him at that age. But that will be very difficult. We also have players 36, 37 years old, like Joselu and Navas. Unbelievable, at this level. You could research it. Maybe it’s something genetic.”
Rodri hopes he is still as fit as Modric at 37: ‘Impressive’
“I don’t know if someone can sustain 60 games in a year for 10 seasons. Or take good care of your body. It’s a weapon. But with sixty games a year, I don’t know if I can still do that in ten years. It’s impressive.”
If Rodri also has those “genes” and continues playing soccer for ten more seasons, chances are that in 2033 with the Spanish national team he will simply be playing the same soccer as now: dominating the game with possession.
The tikitaka gospel that originated some 15 years ago in Barcelona under Guardiola rapidly converted all of Spain to the positional game. The current new national coach Luis de la Fuente, who is tasked with getting Spanish soccer back on its feet, will not deviate from that anytime soon, just like his predecessors. Right?
“Statistics show that ball possession used to be almost a guarantee of victory,” says De la Fuente. “Nowadays you see that the number of clubs winning with less ball possession has greatly increased. So that this is the development.”
Spanish national coach wants to see more direct soccer at Spain: ‘More deep play’
“Of course you have to have possession of the ball. And dominate. But only if you can be dangerous to the opponent. That’s how I see it. That’s my vision of soccer. Of course there are moments in the game where you have to defend and counter. It’s important that we are versatile and can handle many scenarios.”
In those adjustments in the Spanish game, Rodri will stoically continue to sprinkle passes, keeping in mind his beloved textbooks.
