FC Barcelona are said to be ‘one step away’ from signing World Cup winner Rodri after agreeing personal terms with the star midfielder, per a new report. To be clear, a deal has yet to be agreed with Manchester City. That is just one missing step, but it’s a crucial one.
Rodri has reportedly agreed to a contract for four years that will pay him more than 10 million euros in net salary per year, similar to his current contract at City. Some reports have pegged it as approaching 15 million net per year.
Barça launched a bid said to be around 45 million euro plus 10 million more in bonuses for Rodri, which was soundly rejected by City. The English media have generally catalogued the bid as way too low. In the Catalan media, they expect a bid of around 65 million might do the trick. However, reports say City are looking for 80 million for the Spaniard.
The player himself wants to join Barcelona and has only one year left in his deal, both of which are to the Catalans’ advantage. City will try to extract as much value as they can for him, but ultimately, keeping a player who wants to leave on his last year of his deal is not seen as good business sense.
Barcelona are hoping to finish the deal which addresses a need which got even more urgent with Frenkie de Jong’s injury. Rodri is more than a Ballon d’Or winner (which is already saying something), he’s also one of the midfielders that best represents Barcelona’s style over the years.
Then there are the other factors. There’s the prestige of getting Spain’s World Cup hero to join them as well as the satisfaction of getting one over on Real Madrid – who reportedly went hard to try to sign him. Neither of those factors are reason alone to sign a player, but they are a huge boost morale wise for fans.
