Rodri's Potential Move to Real Madrid Gathers Momentum

The long courtship between Real Madrid and Rodri is reaching its decisive moment. In Spain, the move is now being spoken about less as an idea and more as an inevitability.

According to AS, both Real president Florentino Perez and coach Jose Mourinho have signed off on the deal to bring the 30-year-old Manchester City midfielder to the Bernabeu. The green light has been given. All that seems to be missing is the official announcement.

AS goes as far as to suggest a “solution within the next 24 hours”, with representatives from both clubs expected to meet on Thursday to try to close the agreement once and for all. After weeks of manoeuvring, this is being framed as the final summit.

From €100m talk to a cut-price deal

The numbers tell their own story about how this saga has shifted.

Early in the summer, reports across Europe floated figures around €100 million, a price City were said to be holding out for to even consider losing one of their pillars. Now, AS claims the operation is being discussed in the region of €40m to €50m – less than half of those initial estimates, and a fee Real Madrid are prepared to wire to Manchester.

The change in tone is not just financial. Marca had already indicated on Tuesday that City’s iron grip on Rodri was loosening. The Premier League champions, it reported, “hold the player in the highest regard” but are ready to accept his departure if that is his wish.

That marks a clear departure from the club’s earlier posture, when any suggestion of an exit for the newly crowned world champion was met with a firm no. The pressure finally told.

City’s last big decision on Rodri

Behind the scenes, City have spent months trying to tie Rodri down beyond his current deal, which runs until 2027. Those efforts have failed to produce a breakthrough.

The situation leaves the English club with a harsh calculation. If they refuse to sell now and cannot persuade him to sign again, they risk watching one of their most important players walk away for nothing when his contract runs down. This transfer window, then, looks like their last real chance to secure a significant fee.

Rodri, for his part, has never hidden the pull of Madrid. Fabrizio Romano has reported repeatedly that the midfielder would “love” the move and “dream” of wearing Real’s shirt. The desire is not subtle. It is central to why this deal is moving.

A return to the city that shaped him

For Real Madrid, Rodri has been more than a passing idea. He has been a long-term target, a name pinned near the top of their midfield succession plan.

The 2026 World Cup’s best player already knows the Spanish capital intimately. He came through Atletico Madrid’s youth ranks and played for Los Rojiblancos in the 2018/19 season before leaving for England. A return now would carry a sharp twist: the former Atleti product anchoring the midfield of their fiercest rivals.

Back in March, Rodri himself underlined the gravity of any call from the Bernabeu. You “cannot just easily turn Real down,” he said, a line that sounded like a hint at the time and now reads more like a prelude.

The links intensified after his Ballon d’Or triumph, capping an extraordinary 2023/24 season. Even as Real Madrid publicly boycotted the ceremony, reports swirled that behind the scenes they had already earmarked Rodri as the heir to their legendary duo Toni Kroos and Luka Modric.

Now, with Perez and Mourinho aligned, City softening, and the fee falling into a range Madrid can live with, the pieces are finally lining up.

If the next 24 hours deliver what Spain’s papers are promising, the man who once patrolled midfield in red and white could soon be dictating games in white alone, tasked with carrying Real’s engine room into its next era.