Pep Guardiola\u2019s warm appraisal of Rodrygo after a recent match has renewed speculation about the Brazil international\u2019s future. Guardiola spoke with Rodrygo after the game and made his admiration clear: \u201cI told Rodrygo how good he is,\u201d the City boss revealed. \u201cHe\u2019s a player of another level… this guy is a player on another level. I\u2019m glad he\u2019s back from injury. He\u2019s very, very good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The remarks came after a display that represented one of Rodrygo\u2019s best nights in months. Deployed on his unfavored right wing, he opened the scoring with a crisp swipe into the bottom corner to end a record-breaking eight-month goal drought. He also created the game\u2019s most chances \u2014 five in total, all of which were squandered \u2014 and won the most free kicks. Despite those contributions, and his own admission that \u201cit wasn\u2019t enough\u201d to avoid defeat, Madrid fell 2\u20131.<\/p>\n
Guardiola\u2019s praise will inevitably stir headlines because City have long felt the sting of Rodrygo\u2019s interventions. He scored twice in the final minutes of the 2022 Champions League semifinal to drag Real Madrid back into contention, and he found the net in both legs of the 2024 quarterfinal. That history, combined with summer reports that City were among suitors when his future at Madrid looked uncertain, means any public endorsement from Guardiola is likely to be noticed.<\/p>\n
Rodrygo himself has sought to focus on his club responsibilities. Having struggled for a starting berth this term, he pledged to knuckle down under Alonso and made a point of celebrating his goal with the manager. \u201cI liked his performance,\u201d Alonso said of Rodrygo. \u201cThe goal was a consequence of other things he did well. It\u2019s one of today\u2019s good pieces of news to see him with that individual quality, that flair, and he also scored, which was important for him. ]<\/p>\n
The combination of a decisive individual performance, a high-profile admirer, and a recent transfer backdrop ensures the conversation around Rodrygo\u2019s next steps will continue. For now, the immediate focus remains on his form and fitness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guardiola’s praise for Rodrygo reignites transfer talk after a standout performance and goal. again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,987,1163],"tags":[1033,1047,1019],"class_list":["post-5022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-real-madrid","category-transfers","tag-brazilian-football","tag-champions-league","tag-creative-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5022","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=5022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}