Rodri likes to break moulds and counsel. When he was a teenager, growing up in Madrid’s commuter suburb of Villanueva de la Cañada, his father Antonio shouted at him to be more selfish, score more goals. A defender himself for a countryside club, he used to advise him: “No one remembers tackles, they will only remember the yellow cards and sending offs.” Rodri didn’t listen. His comfort space was the midfield. “I could watch the game, I could read the game,” he would say. Years later, Pep Guardiola would instruct him: “You are moving too much. The holding midfielder has to be there. Don’t move. Be there.” The weight of the world’s most deified manager carries more weight than an amateur footballer. He listened and became the bulwark of Pep’s treble-winning season and one of the finest players of the world; he became a rare player the Spanish managing guru over depended on. ALSO READ | FIFA World Cup 2026: Spain consign France to death by disruption But in Dallas, against France in the World …