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Manchester City F.C.

18 August 2026

Manchester City F.C.

18 August 2026

Rodri has said Manchester City will always have a special place in his heart after ending a remarkable seven-year spell with the club.

The 30-year-old has completed a move to Barcelona after making 298 appearances and winning 14 major honours with City.

Since joining the club in 2019, the Spaniard grew into one of the finest players in world football, claiming the 2024 Ballon d’Or and helping Spain win the World Cup and the European Championship.

Although he was a central figure in City’s sustained success on the pitch, Rodri also said he has formed a strong emotional connection with both the club and the city.

“It’s not that I miss City because I don’t feel as if I am leaving. I think I am simply moving to another club, but my heart will always be connected to the city and to the club,” he said in his final City Studios interview.

“I always try to stay involved in the matches, try to come and watch them and keep in contact with my former team-mates.

“But of course, physically you do leave. I think seven years is the right time to say goodbye, to write a good story.

“I always say the most important thing is to have the full picture, the whole film, and say I am proud of this.

“Both sides, club and player, are proud of this and that was the reason for my decision.

“My heart will always be blue throughout my life. And they will always have Rodri for anything they need.”

As an important part of a historic period for City, Rodri built a close relationship with the City supporters at the Etihad Stadium.

After missing a large part of the 2024/25 campaign with a serious knee injury, Rodri said the excitement of the fans when he returned to fitness deeply moved him.

“I have always believed that individual trophies are not so important. What I felt was the love of my club through all these years, including in the bad moments when I got injured,” he said.

“The love I received when I came back was amazing.

“They showed me in that game, when I returned, all the emotion and everything they had inside to watch Rodri again. This makes me cry and makes me proud.

“Sometimes, unfortunately, in football it happens that people only support you in the good moments, but they managed to do it in both the good and the bad moments.”

The No.16 also paid tribute to everyone at the club for pushing him to become the very best player he could be.

When he arrived at City with roughly three seasons of La Liga experience with Villarreal and Atletico Madrid, he was given the task of building on Fernandinho’s

“I came here as a good player. I think nobody realised, nobody knew who I was at that moment, a 23-year-old guy arriving from Atletico, from Spain,” he said.

“Spain is not a very physical league, and I was coming here to take on the role of Fernandinho, a very aggressive player, and suddenly they saw a guy like this.

“I couldn’t imagine what the fans were thinking about me, but I was very confident that I could succeed in this team and that I could grow, as you said, over the years.

“I was always humble enough to know that I had a big gap for improvement and I think that has been my key as a player, to understand that I should never become relaxed.”

“I was humble enough to know what my limits were and what I could improve every year.”