Barcelona’s Bid for Rodri Rejected by Manchester City
Barcelona’s opening move for Rodri has been swatted away without a second thought.
The Catalan club have seen a £38.6 million bid rejected by Manchester City for their midfield metronome, with the Premier League champions standing firm on a valuation closer to £68.5m. For City, the gap is so vast it is not even a starting point. Talks, in their view, have not truly begun.
Barcelona test City’s resolve
Standard Sport understands that City regard Barcelona’s first offer as far too low to trigger serious negotiations. The message from Manchester is clear: if Barcelona want the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner, they will have to come back with something far more substantial.
Barcelona are expected to do exactly that. A second bid is being prepared for the former Atletico Madrid midfielder, who has emerged as their priority target to reshape a midfield now shorn of Frenkie De Jong.
Rodri, 30, is understood to favour a move to Barcelona over any other club. That stance has complicated the plans of Real Madrid, who had been increasingly confident of striking a deal of their own before Barça entered the race.
A tug-of-war in Spain… decided in Manchester
Real Madrid have long tracked Rodri and believed the final year of his City contract would open a door. It did. But Barcelona have barged through it first.
Rodri has previously spoken about his desire to return to La Liga at some stage of his career. With Pep Guardiola’s departure triggering a seismic summer at City, that moment now feels close. The midfielder is keen to move on, and the Spanish giants sense an opportunity that might not come again.
He is currently working his way back from minor back surgery undertaken after the World Cup, but is expected to be fit before the end of the month. Barcelona view that timeline as perfect. They want him in place as De Jong’s long-term replacement, not just a stopgap.
De Jong’s situation is bleak. The Dutchman is set to miss the start of the 2026/27 season after tearing the medial collateral ligament in his right knee in July, a serious blow to Barcelona’s plans and a key reason their gaze has fixed so firmly on Manchester.
City plan for life after Guardiola – and possibly Rodri
City, for their part, are not behaving like a club bracing for a midfield crisis. They have already moved aggressively in the market, landing Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for £116m in a deal that raised eyebrows across the division.
They are also heavily linked with Lille’s Ayyoub Bouaddi, who caught the eye with Morocco at the World Cup and fits the profile of a long-term project in the middle of the pitch.
So the pieces are shifting. Guardiola has gone. Reinforcements are arriving. Rodri has one year left on his deal and a clear desire to go back to Spain.
Barcelona have made their first play and been firmly rebuffed. The next offer will tell everyone just how badly they want the man who has dictated City’s rhythm for years – and how willing City are to loosen their grip on the heartbeat of their era.
