Rodri’s redemption story leaves stars in the shadow of Spain’s great controller | Jonathan Wilson

Much of what Rodri does is indefinable – his great skill is simply being, existing in the right spaces

You don’t need to be long in the US before somebody, finding you’re here to cover “the Fifa” as so many Americans so demoralisingly call it, will tell you that the USA would obviously win it all the time if only their best athletes weren’t distracted by more local pursuits: American football, basketball, eating enormous sandwiches and the like. If you’re really lucky they’ll start shouting names at you with a detailed rundown of height, weight, sprint speed, what they can bench and other fascinating statistics.

At which you wonder whether the 5ft 7in Lionel Messi has ever done a bench press. Rodri probably has, but he’s still nobody’s idea of a great athlete. He’s tall without being physically imposing. He’s not quick. He ambles about games being in the right place. Occasionally he leans into people or passes the ball 10 yards. It would be difficult to put together a highlights reel of his performance in the World Cup final that would convince a neophyte that he was the defining player – but he was, and was rightly named player of the tournament as well.

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