Родри хөлбөмбөгийн түүхэн дэх хамгийн шилдэг хамгаалалтын хагас хамгаалагчдын нэгээр нэрлэгдлээ

The crown of football’s GOAT was surely settled once and for all during the 2026 World Cup.

For many, it hasn’t been a debate for some time, while for others it’s been unequivocal for at least a decade or longer.

Lionel Messi almost single-handedly dragging Argentina to a second successive World Cup final, scoring eight goals (taking his tally to 15 in 15 appearances since the start of the tournament’s previous edition in 2022), setting up another four for team-mates and doing it at the age of 39, cemented, reinforced and confirmed that, surely, he is the greatest footballer we have seen.

But did someone new enter the conversation during the World Cup? No, we’re not talking about Vozinha, the 40-year-old Cape Verde goalkeeper.

How about a guy who has just become the seventh player in history to win a World Cup, a European Championship/Copa America, a UEFA Champions League and a Ballon d’Or in their career? (The other six being Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Muller, Zinedine Zidane, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Messi.)

The same guy was also voted the best player at this World Cup, adding its Golden Ball award to that Ballon d’Or. Only original Ronaldo, Zidane, Luka Modric and Messi have done that.

There are some caveats here, like the fact the Ballon d’Or wasn’t open to non-European players until 1995 and the Golden Ball didn’t start being handed out until 1982, so you can add Pele, Diego Maradona and probably Romario to the above names for a start.

But either way, is it time we started talking about Rodri as one of the greatest footballers of all time?

In terms of achievements in the sport, the 30-year-old, who was instrumental in Spain’s success not only in his exceptional midfield displays but with his leadership as the team’s captain, has pretty much done it all.

As well as a World Cup, a Euros, a Ballon d’Or, a Golden Ball and a Champions League (all achieved in the past three years), you can throw in four Premier Leagues, five domestic cups and a Club World Cup (old version) with Manchester City, plus a couple of UEFA Super Cups (one with City, one with Atletico Madrid) and a UEFA Nations League with Spain.

It’s a substantial list which will surely be added to in the coming years and, given he has achieved much of it fairly deep into his career, means his potential status among the game’s greats has almost crept up on us, in the manner that Modric’s 2018 Ballon d’Or, aged 33, demanded his elevation into the pantheon of football legends.

But does winning so many team prizes alongside those individual accolades give a player automatic inclusion into that conversation? And can a defensive midfielder ever be considered a GOAT?

Rodri has completed football. pic.twitter.com/2kMkQaepWw

— Premier League (@premierleague) July 19, 2026

Rodri completed 648 passes during Spain’s campaign in North America, the most by one player at a single World Cup, breaking his own record from the 2022 tournament. While that doesn’t necessarily equate to being an incredible footballer, what it does reflect is that he was the metronomic heartbeat of undoubtedly the best team in the competition. He dictated the tempo, he played perfect, piercing passes and he broke up opposition play.

He was back to his best after almost two full years away from those levels, one almost entirely on the sidelines after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in his right knee in September 2024 and another playing his way back to form. It was surely no coincidence that in those two seasons, City didn’t win the Premier League, having won it in each of the previous four with Rodri at the centre, literally, of their success.

Immediately after that devastating injury, City endured their worst period in Pep Guardiola’s 10-year reign as manager, at one point losing six league matches out of eight, such was the impact of Rodri’s absence. Guardiola tried an abundance of midfield options in his place, but City, one of the great teams in the modern age of English football, just couldn’t cope without him.

Last season, with a good but not great Rodri back in the side, City continued to struggle by their high standards. Guardiola knew Rodri wasn’t the same player as before, but that he would be again in time.

“At the World Cup will be the best Rodri, and next season will be the best Rodri,” he said in October, with typical prescience.

He has now returned to something approaching the level that saw him win the Ballon d’Or in 2024. That accolade was notable not just for the fact he perhaps controversially pipped Real Madrid and Brazil forward Vinicius Junior (who took it well) to the award, but for Rodri becoming one of precious few non-attackers to win it.

Since legendary German sweeper/defender Beckenbauer received his second Ballon d’Or in 1976, the number of players to win that award who weren’t a striker, forward, winger or attacking/central midfielder is tiny. Just four. They are Lothar Matthaus (1990), Matthias Sammer (1996), Fabio Cannavaro (2006) and Rodri. You can quibble over the likes of Modric, Zidane or Ruud Gullit being in the same ‘midfielder’ bracket as Rodri, but, even for a guy who scored the only goal in the 2022-23 Champions League final, he is undoubtedly a defensive-minded footballer, first and foremost.

In Sunday’s World Cup final, it was his job to stop the GOAT, i.e. Messi, which he and Spain did almost perfectly. It was noticeable how, after Rodri’s departure nine minutes into extra time (Martin Zubimendi replaced him as fresh legs in midfield), Messi’s influence grew, albeit the game state of needing to score after Ferran Torres’ 106th-minute goal for Spain obviously necessitated some of that.

Still, had a fresher Rodri been on the field for those closing minutes, it’s logical to predict Spain would have seen out the match with more comfort than they did.

Therein lies the rub when it comes to GOAT-based conversations.

It was Rodri’s job to stop Messi at MetLife Stadium, just like it’s his job to stop all great opposition attacking players from influencing the matches he plays in.

We all (well, most of us) love football for the goals, for the flair, for the creativity, skill and excitement. Rodri, while he has the odd attacking moment of brilliance and undoubtedly is the facilitating platform on which both City and Spain build attacks, generally wants to deny us these beautiful things.

Can we therefore even begin to compare him to Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland etc as one of the greatest players in the world?

Lionel Messi’s World Cup – where he starred at 39 – ended in tears (Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images)

Is this what Vinicius Jr was getting at?

“The Ballon d’Or has always gone to attacking players, and as a defender I’ve never found that frustrating,” former France full-back Willy Sagnol said in 2012. “Football is a sport that is there to make people dream, and that’s something a defender can’t do, which is normal in my mind.

“The Ballon d’Or should go to players who can do that; Lionel Messi can make people dream, and Cristiano Ronaldo too. Those are the players it should go to.”

Sagnol’s opinion is reflected in the Ballon d’Or winners list.

Paolo Maldini was a great defender but never won it (he finished third twice, in 1994 and 2003). Ditto Franco Baresi, Sergio Ramos, Philipp Lahm, Alessandro Nesta and Ronald Koeman.

Ditto defensive or central midfielders Sergio Busquets, Patrick Vieira, Roy Keane, Falcao, Andrea Pirlo, Frank Rijkaard and N’Golo Kante. All great players, some arguably better than Rodri. However, with his remarkable success for club and country, he now categorically must sit among them on any list of the finest defensive midfielders of all time.

“Rodri, we’ve always said that he’s the best player in the world,” Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente said after Sunday’s final. “He has so much future ahead of him.

“I hope that when players go through tough times, we are more patient and we do not try to undermine the player’s journey because he can win the next Ballon d’Or, as can so many of our players.”

It has been a journey, one that the man himself is proud of.

“I just want the new generations to see my example as an opportunity,” the 2026 World Cup-winning captain said. “When you go down, you can rise again. This is my philosophy for my entire life.

“And then life gives you the World Cup or not. But we were brave, and I was brave in that moment I was down, so I want to thank all the people that helped me. But I want to thank myself in those moments.”

Rodri the GOAT? No. But the GOAT defensive midfielder? He has entered the conversation.

The guy who stops dreams being realised has just made one of his own come true.