Tag: Rodri

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said Monday he was uncertain when Spain midfielder Rodri will be fit enough to return to action.

Rodri missed much of last season with a knee injury and has appeared just once — and then only for a minute — in City’s last 10 games due to a hamstring problem.

The 29-year-old has been ruled out of Tuesday’s Premier League trip to Fulham and is doubtful for the home clash with Sunderland on Saturday.

“No, not yet,” said Guardiola, when asked at a press conference on Monday that lasted just a few minutes, if Rodri was available.

Asked if he could feature at the weekend, Guardiola said: “I don’t know.”

Guardiola also spoke about goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was booked for a fourth time in his short City career in the last-gasp 3-2 win over Leeds on Saturday.

Leeds manager Daniel Farke also accused Donnarumma of feigning injury to allow Guardiola to deliver a key team talk. The Italian is now just one yellow card away from a suspension.

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“Yes, he has a lot (of bookings), he has many,” said Guardiola. “It is what it is.”

Asked if he had spoken to Donnarumma about it, he said: “No.”

Guardiola was more willing to discuss the work of Fulham manager Marco Silva after their impressive 2-1 win away to Tottenham.

“Marco is many, many years there and always (when we) have been there — really, really tough games, difficult,” said Guardiola.

“The organisation is exceptional and every year I have the feeling that with the ball, they are better and better. Tough, tough opponent.

“I saw the games yesterday and today, against Chelsea, against Arsenal, last games against Sunderland.

“Always it’s so, so difficult for the opponents to break them up. It has always been like that in this beautiful stadium (Craven Cottage) in London.”

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Spain named Rodri and Dani Carvajal in their squad on Friday for the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Turkey.

Both players have returned to action for their clubs at the Club World Cup after being absent with long-term knee injuries.

Spain visit Bulgaria on September 4 in their Group E opener, before travelling to Turkey on September 7.

Georgia are the other nation in the four-team group, with the winners progressing to the tournament next summer in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

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Manchester City midfielder Rodri helped lead Spain to Euro 2024 glory but was sidelined in September that year after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament, only making his return during the Club World Cup this summer.

Real Madrid right-back Carvajal was injured in October 2024, rupturing two knee ligaments and a tendon, also making his return in July in the United States at the expanded FIFA tournament.

Barcelona stars Lamine Yamal and Pedri form part of the squad, along with team-mate Fermin Lopez, who has been linked with a move away from the Catalan giants, but new arrival goalkeeper Joan Garcia was not selected.

Spain squad

Goalkeepers: Unai Simon (Athletic Bilbao), David Raya (Arsenal), Alex Remiro (Real Sociedad)

Defenders: Dani Carvajal, Dean Huijsen (both Real Madrid), Pedro Porro (Tottenham), Dani Vivian (Athletic Bilbao), Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona), Robin Le Normand (Atletico Madrid), Alejandro Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen), Marc Cucurella (Chelsea)

Midfielders: Martin Zubimendi (Arsenal), Rodrigo (Manchester City), Gavi, Fermin Lopez, Pedri Gonzalez, Dani Olmo (all Barcelona), Mikel Merino (Arsenal), Fabian Ruiz (PSG)

Forwards: Lamine Yamal, Ferran Torres (both Barcelona), Nico Williams (Athletic Bilbao), Yeremy Pino (Villarreal), Mikel Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Alvaro Morata, Jesus Rodriguez (both Como)

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Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodri was awarded the men’s Ballon d’Or on Monday after winning a fourth consecutive Premier League title and Euro 2024, but Real Madrid boycotted the ceremony.

The decision to award the prize for the world’s best player to the midfielder came as a surprise, with Real Madrid’s Liga and Champions League double winner Vinicius Junior widely seen as the favourite.

Hours before the ceremony in Paris, the Spanish club announced its delegation would not attend the ceremony at Chatelet Theatre because of what it perceived as a snub of Vinicius.

Rodri, 28, played a key role as City held off Arsenal to win the Premier League title last season and was named player of the tournament at Euro 2024 as unfancied Spain emerged triumphant in Germany.

Rodri was diplomatic when addressing the question of Real’s no-show in his post-award press conference.

“They have their decision, they didn’t want to be here for their reasons,” he said. “I just focus on my club and my team-mates.”

Despite the French organisers insisting that the identity of the winner was a closely-guarded secret this year, the news appeared to have leaked ahead of the festivities.

Barcelona and Spain star Aitana Bonmati earlier won her second successive women’s Ballon d’Or, after leading her club to a historic continental quadruple of titles and claiming the Nations League with her country.

The drama started hours before the ceremony as Spanish and European champions Real said if Vinicius was not the winner, then the award should go to his teammate Dani Carvajal.

Like the Brazilian, Carvajal scored in the 2-0 victory against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final at Wembley.

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Vinicius scored 24 goals and made 11 assists in 39 matches across all competitions for Madrid as he led the club to three titles last season.

“If the award criteria doesn’t give it to Vinicius as the winner, then those same criteria should point to Carvajal as the winner,” Real Madrid told AFP.

“As this was not the case, it is clear that Ballon d’Or-UEFA does not respect Real Madrid. And Real Madrid does not go where it is not respected.”

The Madrid contingent of nominees also included Kylian Mbappe, Antonio Rudiger, Fede Valverde and Jude Bellingham.

The winner of the Ballon d’Or is chosen from the shortlist by an international jury of 100 specialist journalists.

The organisers, the Amaury group which owns the L’Equipe sports daily and France Football magazine, denied to AFP that the name of the successor to last year’s men’s winner Lionel Messi had leaked and insisted that “no player or club” knew in advance who had won.

When Real were named as the men’s team of the year, a video played on the stage in the absence of any club representatives.

City manager Pep Guardiola has described Rodri as “in his position, the best”.

“He can do everything. The quality, he reads the game, his mentality, he is always ready,” Guardiola has said.

In addition to his metronomic passing and ball-winning capabilities, the former Atletico Madrid player has a knack of popping up with crucial goals for club and country.

His goal won City their first Champions League in 2023 but he also scored vital goals for Spain, such as the equaliser in their last-16 Euro 2024 tie against Georgia.

So central is Rodri to Manchester City that their past four Premier League defeats have all come when he was absent.

City are top of the Premier League but their chances of winning a fifth straight domestic title were dented in September when Rodri suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury, ruling him out for the season.

Bonmati, 26, joins her Barcelona team-mate Alexia Putellas as the only women to win the Ballon d’Or twice since the award’s inauguration in 2018.

“This cannot be achieved alone, I am very lucky to be surrounded by players who make me better every day,” Bonmati said.

The Catalans won every trophy available to them last season — the Spanish league, Cup, Super Cup and a second-successive Women’s Champions League.

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Manchester City midfielder Rodri will miss the rest of the season with a serious knee injury, dealing a huge blow to their hopes of winning a fifth straight Premier League title.

City manager Pep Guardiola said the Spain international, who suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in last week’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal, had gone under the knife on Friday.

“He had surgery this morning, ACL and some meniscus,” he said. “So, next season he will be here. This season is over.”

Rodri is one of City’s most important players and his loss will be keenly felt by Guardiola, who is also seeking to regain the Champions League crown.

The City boss, speaking on the eve of his team’s Premier League match against Newcastle, said it was the worst news possible, underlining the importance of the defensive midfielder he has called “irreplaceable”.

“We have to do it as a team and find a way to play during a lot of months without an important player for us,” he said.

“Everybody knows it. Speedy recovery and next season he will compete against them.

“We are stronger with him, we’re stronger with Nathan Ake, we are strong with Oscar Bobb.

“All the injuries we did not want it, but football happens.”

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Rodri played a key role as City held off Arsenal to win a fourth straight Premier League title last season and was named player of the tournament at Euro 2024 as Spain emerged triumphant.

Each of City’s past four Premier League defeats have all come when the former Atletico Madrid player has not featured in the side.

The 28-year-old, touted as a potential Ballon d’Or winner, is unbeaten in his past 52 Premier League appearances, a run stretching back to February 2023.

Guardiola, whose team are top of the Premier League, said he had a number of alternatives among his group of “magnificent players”, including Mateo Kovacic, a like-for-like replacement.

“Gundo (Ilkay Gundogan) can play in that position. John Stones and Manu (Manuel Akanji) have played in that position. So we have an alternative to do it,” he said.

Guardiola was asked whether City would dip into the transfer market in January.

“We’ll talk today with Txiki (Begiristain, the director of football), we’ll see how it’s going on,” he said.

“It’s closed until January, so we’ll have time and see potential problems we have, and after we’ll see.”

Rodri, who joined City in 2019, had already had a frustrating start to the season, missing Manchester City’s first four games, including the Community Shield, after suffering a hamstring injury.

Only last week he joined a host of high-profile players to speak out about the ever-increasing fixture workload facing the game’s top stars, and said he thought players could be “close” to striking because of the overloaded calendar.

City will also be without Belgium midfielder Kevin De Bruyne for their trip to Newcastle as he continues to recover from injury.

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Manchester City will be without Rodri for the start of their Premier League title defence after Pep Guardiola revealed the Spain midfielder has been ruled out of Sunday’s opener against Chelsea.

The influential 28-year-old has only just returned to training after being forced off at half-time during Spain’s 2-1 win against England in last month’s Euro 2024 final.

While England trio Phil Foden, John Stones and Kyle Walker hope to feature at Stamford Bridge after their post-Euros break, Rodri has not been cleared to return to action.

Asked on Friday if Rodri could be involved against Chelsea, Guardiola told reporters: “No chance.

“He is in training. I don’t know, I haven’t seen him yet. He feels good. We’ll have to see how he feels after training.”

Rodri’s absence is an early blow to City’s bid to win a fifth successive Premier League title.

Manchester City would love to make a strong start to their title defence in west London, but Guardiola admitted fitness issues could hamper them on the opening weekend.

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Foden, Stones and Walker are not fully fit after only returning to training in midweek following their holidays.

“I’m pretty sure they won’t be ready for 90 minutes, maybe yes, maybe 15 minutes,” Guardiola said.

“The important thing is everybody is back and except for Oscar (Bobb) the rest are OK.”

Bobb will have surgery on Friday to repair a fractured bone in his leg following a non-contact training ground incident on Wednesday.

Pep Guardiola expects the young Norway winger to be sidelined for up to four months.

“Unfortunately, he had a big impact and got injured,” Guardiola said. “He is having surgery this afternoon.

“Hopefully, it will go well and he will be back in three or four months. We are so sad for him.”

Bobb’s setback follows the recent departure of Argentina forward Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid and Guardiola said he could be forced into the transfer market for replacements.

“Maybe or maybe not, we will see,” the Spaniard said. “I’m really pleased with the squad I have, we will see. I’m set.

“We will see what happens in the market. We can continue to January in that way or maybe we will add some players.”

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