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Rodrygo reveals he turned down Barcelona before joining Real Madrid.
Rodrygo has discussed the specifics of his transfer to Real Madrid and acknowledged that he passed up the chance to sign with Barcelona in favour of a move to the Santiago Bernabeu.
The Brazilian international joined Carlo Ancelotti’s team in 2019 after being signed by Madrid for £38.5 million (€45 million).
With Los Blancos, Rodrygo has won two La Liga victories one FIFA Club World Cup, and one UEFA Champions League.
In the year he won the latter, he made history by scoring twice in the 90th and 91st minutes of a Champions League semifinal match against Man City.
Rodrygo has similarly had a strong start to this season, scoring in Madrid’s opening La Liga match of the 2023–24 season.
In an interview with Globo, Rodrygo spoke about how he first joined the team, sharing that he initially received an offer from Real Madrid’s bitter rivals Barcelona but decided to wait.
“Practically everything was done with Barcelona, only signing was missing. I asked my dad: ‘Is there nothing from Real Madrid?’ There was nothing. I asked him to wait until the end of the week because I had a game. I said ‘I’m going to break it and Real Madrid will see me,” he said.
“I went to the game with Vitoria, I scored three goals, I gave an assist, we won 5-2, and during the game Real Madrid called my father and he didn’t even have to make the proposal.
“They just asked if I wanted to go, and my dad already knew my answer. The next day I was off, playing video games, I was with my mother and my father left in the morning without saying anything. At the end of the afternoon he arrived in Santos, went into the house, passed me and my mother at the table without speaking to anyone. He went straight to my room and had a Real Madrid and Barcelona shirt on. As everything was right, he had already traveled to visit Barcelona’s facilities and brought it, from Real I already had it.
“He took both shirts, threw them on top of me and said, ‘now, you choose.’ I didn’t understand, but I didn’t even think about it, it was Real Madrid.”
Rodrygo isn’t the first Real Madrid player still under contract who turned down a move to Barcelona; youngster Arda Guler did the same this summer after receiving bids of roughly £17 million from both teams.