{"id":72450,"date":"2026-08-19T03:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T03:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/72450\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T03:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T03:45:09","slug":"its-a-dream-rodri-completes-65m-move-to-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/72450\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s a dream’: Rodri completes \u00a365m move to Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spain’s World Cup-winning captain Rodri has completed his “dream” move to Barcelona.<\/p>\n

The Catalan giants will pay Manchester City<\/a> a fee of \u00a365m plus add-ons, and the 30-year-old has signed a four-year contract with the La Liga champions.<\/p>\n

Rodri, who won the Golden Ball<\/a> as the tournament’s best player at this summer’s global finals in North America, underwent medical tests on Tuesday before officially putting pen to paper at the Camp Nou. <\/p>\n

“I’m very happy to have arrived. The last few days have been intense, but I’m glad everything has been sorted out. Of course, playing for FC Barcelona is a dream,” Rodri told journalists at the airport on Monday night.<\/p>\n

“I can’t wait to be with my teammates, many of whom I already know from the national team. It’s time to get to work and give my very best.”<\/p>\n

Asked if he wanted to win the Uefa Champions League, Rodri added: “The Champions League and everything else that comes our way.” <\/p>\n

Rodri leaves City having won 12 major honours, including four Premier League titles, two FA Cups, three League Cups and the Champions League in 2022\/23. Memorably, he scored the only goal as City beat Inter Milan in 2023 to become European champions for the first time.<\/p>\n

The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner<\/a> made 298 appearances across seven seasons at City after moving from Atletico Madrid in 2019 for what was a then-club record \u00a362.8m.<\/p>\n

He missed much of the 2024\/25 campaign because of an ACL injury but was back to his best at the World Cup. <\/p>\n

It had looked like Real Madrid would be destination, but but La Liga rivals Barcelona stepped up their efforts to complete the signing in recent days.<\/p>\n

‘Ready to go’<\/p>\n

Rodri arrives at Camp Nou after recently undergoing minor back surgery, a setback that was expected to keep him out for the start \u200bof the season.<\/p>\n

“I’m ready to go,” Rodri told reporters. “The surgery everyone was talking about \u200cwas no big deal – it was just an \u2060outpatient procedure.<\/p>\n

“I’m ready to train with the team, and \u200bwhen the coach thinks it’s time – once I’ve gotten back into the swing of things – I’ll be \u200bready to play. \u200cI hope that’s as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

In a lengthy farewell message to City supporters, Rodri reflected on his time at the club.<\/p>\n

“I \u2060knew I came into a top team but I never thought we could be able to create \u2060the legacy we made: winning trophies, fans around the world, love and respect,” Rodri said.<\/p>\n

“We made an example to inspire the next generations not only because of the success, also because the way we did it. And the fans were with us every step of the way …<\/p>\n

“Making history, with the Treble, with Four in a Row. We saw things they’ll \u200bnever see … It’s time to say goodbye, thanks to the club, the fans, the staff and my teammates. This journey couldn’t be the same without you, my heart will always be Blue.”<\/p>\n

At Barca, Rodri will hope to help the club win a third successive La Liga title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain’s World Cup-winning captain Rodri has completed his “dream” move to Barcelona. The Catalan giants will pay Manchester…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,272,6331,2402,2401],"class_list":["post-72450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-manchester-city","tag-sport-team","tag-standard","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}