{"id":640860,"date":"2026-08-16T23:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T23:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/640860\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T23:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T23:06:15","slug":"transfer-roundup-barcelona-to-sign-rodri-from-manchester-city-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/640860\/","title":{"rendered":"Transfer roundup: Barcelona to sign Rodri from Manchester City \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester City<\/a> have accepted a bid of \u20ac76.5 million from Barcelona<\/a> for Spain midfielder Rodri<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old, who lifted the World Cup with Spain this summer, had entered the final year of his contract at the Etihad Stadium and was the subject of interest from both Barcelona and their Spanish rivals Real Madrid.<\/p>\n

Barcelona had seen an opening offer of \u20ac47 million rejected last week and failed with an increased bid before reaching an agreement on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Speaking after City\u2019s 3-0 Community Shield loss to Arsenal on Sunday, Enzo Maresca called Rodri a \u201ctop player\u201d and said \u201call the teams need Rodri\u201d, but City have been unable to persuade their lynchpin to stay and sign a new contract.<\/p>\n

Rodri had only returned to the club on Friday, having undergone back surgery following the World Cup, with Maresca saying he had given him a \u201cbig hug\u201d when he first met up with him.<\/p>\n

Rodri has spent seven seasons with City, winning the Premier League four times and scoring the only goal when they beat Inter Milan in the 2023 Champions League final.<\/p>\n

The following year he won the Ballon d\u2019Or but by the time he was presented with the trophy he was sidelined with an anterior cruciate ligament which ruled him out of most of the 2024-25 campaign, while hamstring and groin problems limited him to 33 appearances in Pep Guardiola\u2019s final campaign in charge.<\/p>\n

City have already undergone major changes in midfield this summer, spending \u00a3116m (\u20ac135m) on Elliot Anderson, while agreeing a deal to sell Tijjani Reijnders to Al Qadisah. <\/p>\n

They have been linked with Lille\u2019s Ayyoub Bouaddi and Chelsea\u2019s Enzo Fernandez.<\/p>\n

Aston Villa<\/b>\u00a0are preparing for the potential exit of goalkeeper Emiliano Mart\u00ednez by accelerating a move for Parma\u2019s Zion Suzuki.<\/p>\n

Juventus have revived their interest in Mart\u00ednez, who is open to leaving after six seasons at Villa and is increasingly likely to depart during this transfer window. Villa are advancing a deal to sign Suzuki as the Argentina number one\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n

Villa dismissed an offer from Juve for Mart\u00ednez earlier this summer, but Juve have now revisited a move for the 33-year-old, who is under contract until 2029. Juve are also thought to be monitoring Ederson, now of Fenerbahce, and Tottenham\u2019s Guglielmo Vicario. The 23-year-old was poised to join Paris Saint-Germain this week but the Champions League winners, who\u00a0defeated Villa in the Super Cup\u00a0in Salzburg on Wednesday, pulled out of a deal worth about \u20ac35m.<\/p>\n

Suzuki, who was born in the US to a Ghanaian father and a Japanese mother, was raised in Japan. He started all four of Japan\u2019s games at the World Cup. Two years ago, he joined\u00a0Parma, where he established himself. He has been tracked by several Premier League clubs this window.<\/p>\n

Paris Saint-Germain<\/b>\u00a0have signed Spain\u2019s World Cup-winning \u2060forward Ferran Torres from\u00a0Barcelona<\/b>\u00a0on a contract until 2031. Financial \u200bdetails were not disclosed but reports said PSG paid \u20ac50m (\u00a342.7m) \u2060for the 26-year-old.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s World Cup hero arrives in the French capital after \u200cscoring\u00a0the extra-time winner\u00a0in the final against Argentina. He scored \u200b21 goals and provided three assists in 49 appearances in all competitions for Bar\u00e7a last season as they\u00a0retained their La Liga \u2060title.<\/p>\n

Djed Spence has completed his move from\u00a0Tottenham<\/b>\u00a0to\u00a0Inter<\/b>\u00a0on a five-year deal, with the England defender costing around \u20ac30m. It is understood the package includes a 10% sell-on clause.<\/p>\n

Spence \u2013 who started four games at the World Cup, including the\u00a0semi-final against Argentina\u00a0\u2013 had fallen down the pecking order at Spurs after the arrival of\u00a0Andy Robertson from Liverpool.<\/p>\n

\"CelticCeltic midfielder Arne Engels has completed a move to West Ham. Photograph: Robert Perry\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

West Ham<\/b><\/a> have signed Belgium midfielder Arne Engels from Scottish champions Celtic<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old has agreed a five-year contract in east London in a deal understood to be worth around \u00a322 million (\u20ac26 million).<\/p>\n

Engels was not signed in time for West Ham\u2019s Championship opener at Burnley on Sunday but could make his debut at home to Charlton next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester City have accepted a bid of \u20ac76.5 million from Barcelona for Spain midfielder Rodri. The 30-year-old, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[4699,93014,9,10,20992,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,2353,5,795,53370,7,8,7238],"class_list":["post-640860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aston-villa","tag-barcelona-fc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-celtic","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-manchester-city","tag-news","tag-premier-league","tag-rodri","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-west-ham-united"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117107699572837770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}