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Manchester City trigger Rodri's release clause

FC Barcelona v Club Atletico de Madrid - La Liga

Atletico Madrid midfielder Rodri is all set to become a Manchester City player. The Premier League champions have triggered his £62.8 million release clause and will now make him their record signing.

With Fernandinho walking into the twilight of his career, it was high time Pep Guardiola found a dependable holding midfielder and in Rodri, the eccentric Spaniard has found exactly that. The Cityzens were in the hunt for Dutch midfielder Frenkie De Jong who ended up signing for Barcelona.

Guardiola also missed out on Fred and Jorginho who ended up joining Manchester United and Chelsea respectively. Ever since, they have been keeping tabs on Rodri and today, as per reports in Spain, Rodri's agents walked into the LaLiga office to deposit the money.

Rodri had reportedly already told the club that he won't be staying beyond the summer. Despite Diego Simeone trying to convince him to stay, Rodri wanted to seek out a new challenge.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad