Dani Carvajal urges Rodri to leave Manchester City for Real Madrid

Dani Carvajal has reiterated his desire to see Spain team-mate Rodri leave Manchester City for Real Madrid.

The La Liga club are no strangers to the protracted public courtship of transfer targets, and Carvajal’s call for the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner to fill the midfield void created by the retirement of Toni Kroos and the departure of Luka Modric across successive summers will be seen by many as another early move in a familiar recruitment process.

‘I hope he can be with us at the club in the future’

“I’ve already let him know,” Carvajal told the Spanish radio show El Partidazo de Cope. “I hope he can be with us at the club in the future, because he’s a great player.

“But for now, I understand that he’s just coming off a long-term injury and that he wants to repay the trust [Manchester City] have placed in [him].”

Rodri has played little since last September, when he ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament in a Premier League game against Arsenal. The midfielder was nonetheless named alongside full-back Carvajal, who is likewise returning from a long-term knee injury, for Spain’s World Cup qualifiers against Bulgaria and Turkey.

Carvajal has previously admitted urging Rodri to join him in the Spanish capital, most notably before the final of Euro 2024, where the City maestro was named player of the tournament.  

‘Leave Manchester, there is no sun there, and come to Madrid’

“I tell [Rodri] every day to come to Madrid,” Carvajal said then. “I tell him: ‘Leave Manchester, there is no sun there, and come to Madrid, we need you. And what’s more, you’re from Madrid.’

“He would be the perfect signing, no doubt.”

City are aware of Madrid’s interest in Rodri, who was featured on the cover of the Spanish newspaper AS last year under the headline: “Rodrigo 2025.” 

The midfielder’s subsequent injury put paid to that plan, but his reluctance to commit to a contract offer that would make him City’s second highest after Erling Haaland has reportedly raised fears that Madrid’s overtures may have turned his head. Rodri’s current contract expires in the summer of 2027.

The 29-year-old has claimed four league titles at the Etihad and was central to the team that claimed a historic treble of the Premier League, European Cup and FA Cup in 2023. His absence last season was keenly felt Pep Guardiola’s side, who fell well short in their pursuit of a fifth straight league title.