Rodri kindly asks a Barcelona player to let him have his shirt number during their talks.
Rodri has asked his soon-to-be Barcelona teammate, Fermin Lopez, if he can have his shirt number.
The 30-year-old midfielder, who’s been linked with leaving Manchester City this summer, is close to joining Barcelona after turning down talks with rivals Real Madrid.
After he was left out of Enzo Maresca’s squad for the Community Shield game against Arsenal on Sunday, news came out that Barcelona agreed to sign Rodri for about £65 million.
The deal is expected to be finalized in the next few days, according to BBC. Rodri is set to sign a four-year contract with the Catalan club.
In the meantime, Rodri has reportedly asked to keep his usual number 16 shirt at Barcelona. Fabrizio Romano said that he asked Fermin Lopez about this during recent talks. Lopez is expected to switch to the number 7 shirt, which was once worn by Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann.
With Rodri’s number request and Robert Lewandowski leaving this summer, the number 9 shirt is now free. So who will take it?
Barcelona is keeping the number 9 open for their long-term target Julian Alvarez, who might be joining them soon. Spanish paper SPORT also reports that new signing Karim Adeyemi prefers the number 14 shirt.
After Rodri turned down Real Madrid, more details have come out about how their camp reacted. SPORT says that new manager Jose Mourinho believed Rodri would be the last piece in the club’s summer signings because they wanted a defensive midfielder and a center-back.
Mourinho even told Eduardo Camavinga he could leave to make room for the new midfielder. Real players thought Rodri would join them, so they were surprised by his change of mind.
The report says Mourinho will now have to work with Aurelien Tchouameni, Camavinga, and Federico Valverde in defense, and try to make Arda Guler and Bernardo Silva work as a double pivot. Real Madrid doesn’t plan to sign another midfielder right now.
This isn’t the first time this has happened. The report says that in the past two years, similar situations ended badly for the club.
Mourinho was reportedly very angry during talks with Real Madrid executives, where he was told they wouldn’t bring in a new midfielder.