{"id":1180434,"date":"2026-09-01T09:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T09:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1180434\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T09:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T09:09:15","slug":"rodri-is-the-lionel-messi-of-spanish-football-spain-boss-luis-de-la-fuente-hails-world-cup-winning-midfielder-after-blockbuster-barcelona-transfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1180434\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Rodri is the Lionel Messi of Spanish football!&#8217; &#8211; Spain boss Luis de la Fuente hails World Cup-winning midfielder after blockbuster Barcelona transfer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marca.com\/radio\/2026\/09\/01\/luis-fuente-encumbra-rodrigo-hernandez-messi-futbol-espanol.html\" target=\"_blank\" data-affiliate-type=\"NONE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Radio Marca<\/a>, De la Fuente was quick to highlight just how pivotal the former City star is to both club and country. The coach dismissed any concerns over his transition to a new domestic environment, insisting his quality transcends any tactical system.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It will be easier for him to adapt, as Rodri is the Messi of Spanish football, so he will adapt well to any team, in any circumstance,&#8221; De la Fuente explained. &#8220;He is the best in the world in his position.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The manager also expressed his delight at seeing elite domestic talent returning to Spain&#8217;s top flight. He added: &#8220;What I celebrate is that these great footballers are in La Liga, because it makes the league greater, because it makes the best players in the world, who are our footballers, the Spaniards, compete here in Spanish clubs. I would welcome it if many who are still abroad could return here to demonstrate the capacity, talent, and great footballing class they possess.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking to Radio Marca, De la Fuente was quick to highlight just how pivotal the former City star&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1180435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5312],"tags":[10105,199,2000,299,40723,138589,7325,16553,886,35250,104,1514],"class_list":["post-1180434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-argentina","tag-barcelona","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-l-messi","tag-laliga","tag-major-league-soccer","tag-manchester-city","tag-rodri","tag-spain","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117195005367027196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1180434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1180435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1180434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1180434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1180434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}