Rodri
Rodrigo Hernández Cascante
#16 · Midfielder · age 29 · (C)
2024 Ballon d'Or winner. [unverified] captain status assumed pre-tournament.
87
WC26 rating
- Recent form
- 36
- Career peak
- 91
- League level
- 100
- Competition pedigree
- 98
- International pedigree
- 89
- Longevity
- 63
Independent rating — league strength (Opta-anchored) × competition tier × position-normalized output. Not affiliated with EA or FIFA.
Career by season
Source: transfermarkt · fetched 2026-05-29
De la Fuente’s Spain is built around Rodri’s ability to take a touch under pressure and either bounce it back through Pedri or skip the press entirely with a 40-yard switch to Nico Williams or Lamine Yamal. The 2024 final against England turned on his absence from the second half — Spain visibly lost their rhythm without him — and the lesson De la Fuente took into qualifying was that Rodri’s minutes are the resource he must protect. Expect Zubimendi to spell him in group-stage blowouts and Rodri to play every minute that matters from the round of 16 onward.
Strengths
- press-resistant deep build-up
- anticipatory positional defending
- calm long-range passing through the lines
- leadership and tempo control
Recent form
Back to full minutes through spring 2026 after his 2024 ACL recovery; remains the structural keystone for both club and country.
Between April 2021 and his September 2024 injury, the teams he started for went 74 league games unbeaten across City and Spain — a streak so absurd it became its own discourse.