Spain has placed six players on the 30-man Ballon d’Or shortlist this year, and Rodri Hernández wants one of them to walk off with the trophy. Speaking on El Partidazo de COPE, the Barcelona midfielder framed the 2026 race around that Spanish contingent, Pau Cubarsí, Marc Cucurella, Lamine Yamal, Fabián Ruiz, Ferran Torres and himself. “What I would love from the bottom of my heart is for a Spaniard to win it,” he told the programme.

Rodri also confirmed he will be in the room whatever the result. The ceremony is set for 26 October at the London Palladium, the first time the prize has been handed out in London. “I always go, as I said the day I thought they were not going to give it to me, and I was there,” he said.

Yamal has Rodri’s vote

Barcelona have publicly nominated the 19-year-old Yamal as their pick, and Rodri did not push back against the choice. He said it was fair for the club to believe Yamal deserves the award and that many players merited consideration this year. On Yamal’s own claim to sit alongside Kylian Mbappé at the top of the game, Rodri said the confidence was a good thing at his teammate’s age.

His sharpest line was reserved for the players who did not make the cut.

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“It’s hard to understand how they’re not among the 30. Raphinha is by far the player who’s surprised me the most,” he said of the Brazilian winger, whose omission from the shortlist he grouped with that of Pedri.

Real Madrid ‘tried really hard’

The same interview reopened the transfer saga that pulled Rodri from Manchester City to Barcelona in August. He confirmed Real Madrid had pushed for him in the same window.

“Real Madrid really tried hard. They wanted to sign me, we had direct talks and they came with everything they had to make it happen,” he said, adding that the approach was professional and that he was grateful for it.

Asked whether he had spoken directly to club president Florentino Pérez, Rodri stepped around the question.

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“I’m going to keep that to myself; I spoke to people there who conveyed their enthusiasm,” he said. He framed the switch to Barcelona as a sporting call rather than a snub, saying his belief in the current generation at the Camp Nou was the deciding factor.

Rodri’s move, confirmed by ESPN, is worth an initial €60m plus up to €16.5m in add-ons and runs for four years.

Flick’s opening four days

On new head coach Hansi Flick, Rodri drew a clear line from what he knew under Pep Guardiola.

“It doesn’t resemble Guardiola in the slightest. The first 4 days they gave me a physical beating that wasn’t normal,” he said of Flick’s opening sessions at Barcelona.

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He credited the German’s drive and refusal to settle as one of the reasons the switch appealed in the first place, and pointed to Pedri’s control in midfield as the piece he expects to build on.

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