MADRID, 26 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Manchester City's Spanish midfielder, Rodri Hernández, does not hide that his one-season stint with Atlético de Madrid's first team was very valuable for his career because Diego Pablo Simeone made him “grow in many facets such as competitiveness.”
“Simeone made me grow in many facets such as competitiveness, wanting to win, in dueling. I have added all that to my game, which is also necessary in a team that plays football well,” Rodri underlines in the interview. Rodri, exceptionally normal' broadcast by the sports streaming platform 'DAZN'.
The midfielder had a good year with the Argentine in what was his return to a club that he had left years before to head to Villarreal. “The sporting direction of the club changed and they began to bet on another style of play, perhaps more physical, and I began to feel that they were losing the confidence that until then they had placed in me. After a year without playing, I had to make the hard decision leaving,” he recalls.
And after returning to Atlético and shining, he headed to the English Premier League to join Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. “My first game in the Premier League was against West Ham, and Antonio, probably the strongest player in the league, hit me on the nose with his forearm. It was unintentional, I was just covering the ball, and I thought I might have missed it. “I had broken it. The referee came and told me: 'Welcome to the Premier League',” he says.
Regarding the English championship, he does not hide that Juergen Klopp's Liverpool in his first year could be “the best team” he has ever faced, while regarding the long-awaited conquest of the Champions League he warns that “it was not an obsession at all.” “We had the hope, but you have to be close many times to be able to win it, it is very rare to arrive and kiss the saint,” he says.
The international finished fifth in the 'Ballon d'Or' voting despite his great 2023, but he did not want to give it too much importance. “Football lives on goals, which is the most difficult thing to do. In these things I usually think that what you can't control won't affect you much,” he remarks.
Finally, the man from Madrid is asked about his absence from social networks. “I'm not a person who likes to show off and social networks do a lot. They give that point of showing what your day to day life is like and there are people who like it a lot, but I stay more on the sidelines,” he admits.