Rodri Reveals Why He Chose Barcelona Over Madrid

Real Madrid thought they had him. Barcelona ended up unveiling him.

Few transfers twisted the knife in the Spanish capital this summer quite like Rodri’s decision to turn down the Bernabeu and walk into the Camp Nou instead. Now, speaking to MD, the midfielder has laid out why the European champions lost a battle they were heavily favoured to win.

A restless summer and a sporting decision

Rodri did not dress it up. What looked from the outside like a straight shootout between two giants felt, on the inside, like a draining, drawn‑out ordeal.

“The first thing I have to say is that I would have liked it to have been two or three weeks of quiet vacation and they were not at all,” he admitted. The holidays vanished under calls, meetings and pressure. “Many things had to be analysed, and such an important decision had to be made with two of the best clubs in the world.”

Real Madrid pushed hard. The player confirmed “many things” were put in front of him, and for long stretches of the window the expectation around the deal pointed firmly towards the Bernabeu. Yet when the moment came, he framed it as a cold sporting choice rather than an emotional one.

“In the end I made a decision on the sporting level,” he said, explaining he looked for “where I could win and grow more as a player.” That, he stressed, tipped the scales. Not money. Not politics. The project.

Still, walking away from Madrid’s offer left a mark. “It was not an easy decision at all, saying no to Madrid is not easy,” he underlined, before going out of his way to praise the club’s conduct. “Above all that, they behaved exemplarily with me.”

What changed the story? Two men in Barcelona colours. “In the end, Deco and Hansi convinced me.” The sporting director and the coach sold him on their vision, their plan for his role, their belief that he would sit at the heart of a rebuilt Barça. That was enough to turn a Madrid-leaning saga into a Barcelona headline.

Mourinho’s role and a respectful rejection

At the centre of Madrid’s pitch stood Jose Mourinho, a coach Rodri clearly respects and did not want to embarrass. The midfielder drew a line around the details of their talks but left no doubt about the message he received.

“I don't think it's his thing to reveal a private conversation,” Rodri said, refusing to spill specifics. “But he obviously expressed his desire for me to join, and he told me what I could bring to the team. The treatment was very good.”

This was no cold, agent‑to‑club negotiation. Once his mind was made up, Rodri picked up the phone himself.

“When I made the decision, I also called him to thank him for his interest and treatment,” he revealed. It was a small gesture, but in the context of a high‑stakes tug of war between Real Madrid and Barcelona, it speaks to the respect on both sides.

Rodri did not hide his admiration for the man he turned down. “I think he's a great coach, he's already shown it wherever he's gone in his great stages,” he said, before issuing a warning from the other side of the divide: “Real Madrid are going to be a tough opponent for this league.”

He will now face Mourinho’s side as a rival, not a lieutenant, in a title race that suddenly has an extra layer of personal intrigue.

Ballon d’Or boycott not a factor

One narrative quickly floated around Madrid’s failure to land him: the club’s decision to boycott his 2024 Ballon d'Or victory. Rodri moved fast to shut that door.

He made it “very clear” that the Ballon d'Or episode did not influence his thinking. No revenge angle. No emotional payback. Just the sporting project, the coaches, and where he believed he would grow.

So the story settles on something far more uncomfortable for Madrid: they did almost everything right, treated the player “exemplarily”, had Mourinho on the phone, and still lost him on footballing grounds to their greatest rival.

For Barcelona, that is exactly the kind of win they have been craving. For Madrid, it is the kind of defeat they will be desperate to avenge on the pitch, when Rodri lines up in the wrong colours in the next Clásico.