City have accepted a £65.4m bid from Barcelona for Rodri, ending the midfielder’s seven-year spell at the Etihad.
City and Barcelona have agreed the fee after two earlier offers were knocked back — an initial bid of around £40m and a follow-up of £55m both rejected before City’s valuation of upwards of £60m was met. Rodri has agreed a four-year deal with the Spanish champions and will head to the Nou Camp to complete his move.
It’s a significant departure by any measure. Rodri joined City from Atletico Madrid in 2019 for what was then a club-record fee, and leaves having won four Premier League titles and the Champions League across 298 appearances in seven seasons. He arrives at Barcelona fresh off winning this summer’s World Cup with Spain, where he also collected the tournament’s Golden Ball.
Rodri had one year left on his City contract, and while the club had hoped to tie him down to an extension, they were prepared to let him leave for the right price. His exit lands awkwardly — he missed Sunday’s 3-0 Community Shield defeat to Arsenal, only returning to training on Friday following minor back surgery, with Maresca afterwards noting simply that “all teams need a player like Rodri.”
The sale adds to a busy window for City, who broke the British transfer record for Elliot Anderson and are also tracking Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez. Expect further incoming reinforcement talk to follow quickly.
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Source: Sky Sports
