Enzo Maresca has played down the latest noise around Rodri\u2019s future, insisting there have been no meetings at the Etihad Stadium dedicated to the midfielder and describing the Real Madrid talk as \u201cjust speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Manchester City manager made the remarks before a preseason friendly against Inter, stressing that Rodri remains a major part of the club\u2019s thinking even as his contract moves toward its final year. Maresca said the midfielder is being given time to recover, following surgery on Monday and a summer that has also included rest after the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said in the first press conference that any manager in the world wants Rodri, so it\u2019s important for me, for the club and for everyone, but now he needs to get some rest,\u201d Maresca said in his prematch press conference ahead of City\u2019s preseason friendly against Inter.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very important when we need to play every three days. The main focus for him when the season finished was the World Cup. Now he enjoys some rest after that, and we didn\u2019t have any conversation just focused on Rodri [with sporting director Hugo Viana].<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just speculation in this moment. Rodri had surgery on Monday, everything was fine. Now he will get some days off and then return back with us after his holiday ends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodri\u2019s name has been linked with Real Madrid before. In 2024, he said: \u201cWhen Real Madrid call you, the best club in history, the most successful, everything that means … Obviously, it\u2019s an honor and you always have to pay attention, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interest from the Spanish side later cooled as Rodri\u2019s fitness problems mounted. He tore his ACL in Sept. 2024, then battled further setbacks in 2025-26, missing more than 100 days for City last season. Across the last two seasons, he managed only 41 appearances in total, with 24 of them coming in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
That history made Real Madrid reluctant, especially after Rodri underwent surgery for a back problem this summer. Yet the situation has shifted again, with reports of an official approach and verbal discussions with City. If a fee of at least \u20ac50 million is offered, City may have to decide whether to keep their Ballon d\u2019Or winner or sell before next summer\u2019s expiry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maresca has dismissed Rodri-to-Real Madrid talk as speculation while City weigh their options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[1836],"class_list":["post-18182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","tag-2026-27-premier-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}