Barcelona snatch Rodri from Madrid and make him new Busquets

Spain’s World Cup-winning captain has completed his move to Camp Nou where he is a natural successor to club legend

B y the time Flight PTN27B started its descent into El Prat a bit before 8pm on Monday evening, a small crowd had gathered by the terminal doors, waiting for it to land. A few people stood and watched the sky, cameras out to capture its arrival. A lot more watched on their phones. In the two hours it had taken to get there from Manchester, taking off at 5.11pm, 101 minutes behind schedule, the Pilatus PC-24 had become the most tracked plane on the planet. Everyone knew that Rodrigo Hernández was on board. Unless, of course, he had been sneaked away in a catering cart.

Five days earlier, Rodri had been seen, and recorded, at Barajas airport waiting to get on a flight back to Manchester from Madrid. He wheeled a small RFEF case with his name on, stood alone in the queue, the World Cup winning-captain just a bloke in shorts and T-shirt, and his stay in the UK was supposed to be brief, just long enough to say goodbye. The plane he was boarding was a Ryanair: that was the detail everyone homed in on, something extraordinary in the ordinariness. This time, though, he came on a private jet, one way. His family travelled with him. He came to sign for FC Barcelona .

Rodri was late: an agreement between Manchester City and Barcelona had taken a little longer than expected, long enough for concern to creep in, and his flight landed 70 minutes behind schedule. Maybe he is late- late, too: at 30, and three years after the departure of Sergio Busquets – the man to whom he had always been likened and whose natural successor he has always been … this transfer could perhaps have come sooner. Yet it was rarely even contemplated, virtually up until the moment it happened. In that sense, it had actually been quick. A fortnight ago, few thought of this.

Now here he was, heading out in jeans and a white T-shirt. There was expectation, a hint still of disbelief that they had got him. A touch of relief, too, after the delay. They had been “intense days” Rodri said, but now it was done. Barcelona’s third bid had been accepted: €60m plus a further €15m in add-ons, €11m of which are virtually guaranteed. He will earn around €15m a year, an increase on his salary at City, and has signed a four-year deal.

“I’m happy to be here,” Rodri said, and they were happy to have him. The following morning he arrived at the club’s Joan Despi training ground to complete his medical, everything signed off. As he left the terminal building, Rodri had been asked if this was a dream come true. He of course said yes it was, which he had to say. The question had been direct, leading. It had been loaded too.

A Balon d’Or winner and the embodiment of a style, an identity, that is theirs too, Rodri is the perfect fit. The time was right for him too. Voted the best player at the World Cup, the culmination of his recovery from injury, there was just one year left on his contract at City. He had won it all in England and Pep Guardiola had gone. After seven years away, home called.