Rodri, the imperial: "I've been horrible, but Guardiola has told me to my face. As a leader, I had to change"

In the sobs of Rodrigo Hernández with his face hidden in the Atatürk grass there were tears from the games in Majadahonda with the Atlético cadet; for the day he was sent to the third Juvenile as an under-16 international because no one believed he would reach the 1.90 cm he looks today; for the talks with Javi Calleja and Paco López in Miralcamp when Villarreal rescued him in 2013 to start making him the footballer he is today. Then came the ephemeral return to the rojiblanco team to end up in the hands of Guardiola.

The Catalan coach has molded him into a midfielder that he defines as “imperial”. He even shook off his doubts during the locker room break after 45 minutes with Brozovic tied to his boots in a harassing way.. “I was horrible in the first part, unbecoming of me. But the coach told me to my face. He told me that he was a leader and that he had to change his mentality”, confessed the player, who knew in 2021 what it is to lose a final, the one lived from the bench.

Pep asked him for a change and he gave it. He shook off bad thoughts and was even able to draw how he would hit Bernardo Silva's back pass. “I had in mind to hit it hard, but I thought: you're only going to have one in the whole game, so put it in.”

“I never imagined this”

The physical strength that Atlético did not see and the balance that it gives to the game was seen by an expert scout like José Manuel Llaneza. “He is the most complete footballer I have ever seen and he is going to be one of the best,” the Villarreal manager repeated to everyone who asked him about the ragged pearls.. So Rodri, who lived in his student apartment in Castellón and made training compatible with studying Economics. I did not dream of being a European champion and a protagonist. “My dream was to play at the highest level, but I never imagined playing in the Champions League, much less scoring in the final.. This shows that, with work, any guy like me can do it.”

Rodri was the best player in the final, he has entered City history for being the first goalscorer in a final and in the season in which he scored his first goals in the Champions League. He did it in the first leg of the quarterfinals against Bayern and in the most important game in the 143-year history of the Manchester club. It was so important that even the owner sheikh, Mansour bin Zayed, who had only seen one game live, the victory against Liverpool in 2010, was in the Istanbul field to see Guardiola's work culminate.. Atatürk is a fetish field for English teams when they face Italians. And that is where Rafa Benítez's Liverpool lifted the final against Ancelotti's Milan in 2005.

The final had two more protagonists. It was the goalkeeper Ederson, with doubts at the beginning but who took a chopped header at Lukaku in the 88th minute and saved his team again in the 95th minute. “If they had tied, I don't know what would have happened, because I was very dead,” Rodri recalled.

Misfortune and relief for De Bruyne

The other was De Bruyne. There are footballers who have affairs with a competition and others who carry curses. The Belgian could belong to the second group. He only put up with 36 minutes on the pitch, and it's not the first time he has had to leave a Champions League final injured. Against Inter it was a muscle problem in the back of his right thigh. Images of the 2021 final in Porto against Chelsea came to mind. He wanted to continue, he tries to prove himself, but he ended up asking Foden to replace him. He shook hands with Guardiola, with the entire bench, although there was no consolation.

Finals are denied to the talented midfielder, who already had to leave the first one City played in the 59th minute. A few minutes after Havertz scored, when the English team most needed to react, a clash with Rüdiger left the Belgian stunned and with a black left eye that forced him to stop playing. His tears had no consolation then. This time Rodri made them happy.