The Brazilian striker narrated an idyllic love story with Real Madrid
The reality is that Florentino Pérez put a signing bonus of eight million on the table
After four seasons at Real Madrid, Rodrygo Goes has not finished gaining a place in the starting eleven of the white team. His records are nothing to write home about: 18 goals and 18 assists in 108 games. But his love affair with the Champions League has made him a key player in the title won this season against Liverpool. 10 of his 18 goals have been in Europe’s top competition. And the two that he scored to force the miraculous comeback against Manchester City are already part of the history of the Madrid club.
But Rodrygo’s race was about to be written at 600 kilometers. Specifically at the Camp Nou. Barça had tied the footballer in the summer of 2018. His father, Eric Batista, had traveled to the Ciutat Comptal to close the operation. The contracts were drawn up in the absence only of the footballer’s signature. But Rodrygo ended up signing for Real Madrid.
The Brazilian striker yesterday explained an idyllic story of platonic love with Real Madrid in an interview with ‘Podpah’, a Brazilian podcast. According to Rodrygo, when his father told him that everything was ready for him to sign for Barça, his response was to wait for Real Madrid to decide. “Wait a moment? If you are going to play with Messi”was the response of his father, according to Rodrygo.
The Brazilian striker recounts how the decision to sign for Real Madrid came about: “A normal day I came home after a game. I had a Real Madrid shirt in my house. My father came into the room wearing that shirt and another from Barça and He told me to choose. I chose the Real Madrid one“.
The story, indeed, is very emotional, but the reality is related to money. Florentino Pérez did not assume that Barça would take Neymar away from him a year before and he swore that it would never happen to him again. So he pulled the checkbook: eight million signing bonus for Rodrygo, eight million more for his representative, Nick Arcuri, and 40 million for Santos for 80 percent of his rights. An operation similar to the one he had done weeks before with Vinicius.