Rodri believes Manchester City’s first Champions League triumph can be the launchpad to build a legacy akin to that of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Milan as clubs who are serial winners of the trophy.
The 26-year-old’s goal against Internazionale at the Ataturk Stadium proved decisive and sealed City the treble, moving Pep Guardiola’s side alongside Manchester United’s 1999 vintage as only the second English team to achieve the feat. Rodri immediately focused on defending the trophy next season.
“It was so important to win against Inter because we can build a legacy for the future,” he said. “We can trust in ourselves that we did it and this is what teams like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, AC Milan – these kind of clubs – did in the past. So yes we believe we can do it again. That’s why it’s so important.
“This [winning the competition] talks a little bit about life – you have to try and push, even though some years it’s not been fair for us. Sport is like this. You have to keep going and keep going and in the end God gave this amazing present for all of us. The good point is we won but we created a culture and we won more.
“Guys like Erling [Haaland], 22-year-olds, and the lads coming now we have a very good squad for the next years.”
Of his winning goal, Rodri said: “From my point of view I want to thank the team. It’s a victory of many years of work at this amazing club.They trusted me to come here, even though the change wasn’t easy. It was a new culture for me and I arrive, now scoring the most important goal in the history of this club. We deserve it. What a season. We deserve it.
“I think it was the only time I went forward in the game because Inter was so narrow I wanted to make sure the two strikers weren’t comfortable. In that moment I just saw the space. In the first moment I thought about shooting strong but then I realised there were six or seven players in the goal area and I was like: ‘No, I’m going to put it in the first post.’ The end result was incredible but there was half an hour still to go so it was a big effort from all of us.”
Kevin De Bruyne was forced off after only 36 minutes because of an ongoing hamstring problem, the Belgian being replaced by Phil Foden. This followed him also being taken off in the 2021 Champions League defeat against Chelsea with a face injury.
Rodri said: “He can rest now. The moment that Kev was injured again, in another big final, we were like: ‘One of our big guys has come out.’ But Phil was amazing. This talked about the team, all of us. Kevin has been excellent. I don’t have to talk much about him – he’s a leader. He deserves this.”
Rodri, meanwhile, has been named as the Champions League player of the year by Uefa as seven City players made the team of the season and Haaland took goal of the season honours. Rodri was joined by six City stars in the team of the season as Haaland, De Bruyne, John Stones, Rúben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Kyle Walker were all included. City also scooped the goal of the season award through Haaland for his acrobatic strike against Borussia Dortmund during the group stages.
