This has been a World Cup in which individual stars shone. Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 topped the goalscoring charts<\/a>, followed by Messi, Jude Bellingham, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9. In the most heavily marketed World Cup, there were plenty of faces to market: \u201cLook at this celebrity, scoring a goal!\u201d But the parade of goalscorers ended up marching in the shadow of the great controller.<\/p>\n Mauricio Pochettino made the point last year that there were two problems with a US system that in effect forces a parent who wants their child to play soccer to pay thousands of dollars a year to belong to a club. The first is that it means huge swathes of the population are excluded for basic financial reasons. The second is less obvious but perhaps almost as insidious: parents at the end of the year will demand to see progress, to know what they\u2019ve got for their money.<\/p>\n The two most important attributes for an elite footballer \u2013 technical ability and tactical awareness \u2013 are extremely difficult to measure. And so coaches tend to tell a parent that their charge has knocked a fraction off their sprint time, or is lifting 20 pounds more. That\u2019s measurable; it satisfies the need to see a return on investment. The result is a focus on physicality rather than the nebulous but vital skills that define the best players, something reflected in how the USA side play. Carli Lloyd made a similar point<\/a>, and a series of youth coaches I\u2019ve spoken to over the past month have agreed.<\/p>\n Rori directs traffic in the Spain midfield during the World Cup final. Photograph: James Lang\/Imagn Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n There is no American Rodri, and perhaps in the present system there cannot be one. But then there is no English Rodri, or French Rodri, or Argentinian Rodri, or German Rodri. Rodri is a very Spanish type. He comes from the line of Sergio Busquets, and the closest player to him in the modern game is Mart\u00edn Zubimendi. In an environment in which football is becoming increasing physical, they have found a role for the cerebral.<\/p>\n Much of what Rodri does is indefinable. He didn\u2019t score a goal or register an assist at this World Cup. A pass completion rate of 93.2% is obviously very good, but it was only the 44th best in the tournament. Even if you filter out centre-backs \u2013 who play a lot of short, simple, unpressured passes \u2013 Rodri is 18th. He ranked 22nd for tackles per game and 450th for interceptions. Even at fouling, at which, following in the proud Manchester City lineage of Fernandinho, Rodri is a master, he was only 97th. Although he completed a record 756 passes at this tournament, his great skill is simply being. By existing in the right spaces, Rodri lubricates and distributes and, by somehow combining that with a capacity to draw matter towards him, he discourages opponents from passing in his zone. He, as much as anyone, was the reason Lionel Messi was so little involved in the final.<\/p>\n Yet as recently as the end of the domestic season \u2013 which admittedly doesn\u2019t feel that recent after 104 World Cup games but was only two months ago \u2013 there were doubts about whether Rodri would be quite the same again. It was only 10 weeks after being named player of the tournament at Euro 2024 that Rodri sustained the anterior crucial ligament injury<\/a> that kept him out for the 2024-25 season. City\u2019s decline in his absence told its own story.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782311733_174_500.jpg\")
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