Man City player Rodri receives unexpected praise after winning the Ballon d'Or; he is a unique kind of award winner.

It's safe to say that when he spoke to Pep Guardiola about Rodri earlier this year, he did not anticipate this. "If holding midfielders started getting the recognition of Erling Haaland and Kevin [De Bruyne], we would have a problem," Guardiola stated to Sky Sports.

It is imperative that the holding midfielder never, ever appear in the highlights. The holding midfielder must put the team's needs ahead of their own and not look for praise. We couldn't be doing what we are doing without him. However, the highlights must be someone else's.

It also reminds me of a summer talk with Bernardo Silva. As the quintessential team player, he made it clear that he disapproved of these personal baubles. He disagrees with Trent Alexander-Arnold's assertion that his top prize is the Ballon d'Or.

His statement to Sky Sports, "I give those awards just the right amount of importance they deserve," made it clear that he held this opinion. "We are playing a collective sport but the individual awards always go to the strikers because they have the last touch," he stated.

However, those who work in the game, whether they are managers or players, are aware of how crucial it is to have a good goalie, defender, midfielder, and striker—not simply a good striker. Titles are not won by strikers alone.

"Take a look at the winning teams. The foundation is a strong defensive. A strong defence will lead to a stronger offence. Therefore, I feel that it does not fairly represent our sport when I look at individual awards and just see the players who score goals winning."

Nevertheless, here we are. Rodri, winner of the Ballon d'Or. Although he played a key role in Manchester City's historic triple and scored the game-winning goal in the Champions League final the previous season, he was perhaps possibly even better. But all changed with glory with Spain.

It feels like a belated recognition that he is the man who gets the top teams performing, both at the club and international levels, after being named the best player at Euro 2024. We are still drawn to goals. However, Rodri is so noticeable that it is difficult to ignore him.

Imagine Rodri with City in possession, spraying the ball left and right, rarely more than a few passes away from getting back to where it belongs at his feet. In the previous season, he got more than 4,000 football touches in the Premier League. It was a record.

The game appears simple because of his metronomic usage of the ball. It's not. A weaker player would be appalled to be expected to do anything at all with the passes he receives since he is under so much pressure. He walks away after dropping a shoulder and holding off his marker.

Football now has numbers for everything, and some of them assist explain what the eye can see. There were 2068 of Rodri's passes last season that were played while under pressure, 500 more than the next man on the list. He operates in confined areas.

Despite this, he rarely gives up the ball. We can determine the difficulty of the passes that players try based on the opposition's position by tracking data. Although Rodri's passes appear straightforward, there are so many that he ought to lose it frequently.

Rather, the data indicates that Rodri had the highest pass completion rate above expectations by 6.79 percentage points out of the 119 players who made over 1000 passes in the Premier League last season.

He overstates how ambitious his passing is. In terms of line-breaking passes, he was one of the Premier League's top five players. There was Rodri, sleuthing away beside those playmakers Martin Odegaard and the daring Bruno Fernandes.

Additionally, he was functioning in a different dimension than the others. Although it may appear to be only a stylistic oddity, the fact that he has many more chipped passes than any other player is informative in its own right. Rodri is able to go above or between. Each and every club in the bag.

In addition, City's Premier League title-winning season featured eight goals and nine assists, for those who want their stats a little more significant. He was only surpassed on both counts by five players in the competition, and they were all forwards.

Of course, Rodri brings more. A lot more. The fact that he was able to stop counterattacks and win possession of the ball more times in the middle of the pitch than any other Premier League player helps to understand why City was so concerned when he sustained his terrible injury.

"Internally, all team-mates and staff, they all know how important and decisive he is," Guardiola stated. "Very significant to us. We are a stronger squad with him. Definitely. Given how much he assists with, I would say that he is currently irreplaceable.

For a time, it appeared that way. Last season, City lost to all but Luton in their six Premier League games against Premier League opponents sans Rodri. Before they were denied the double in the FA Cup final, they had gone undefeated in the 49 with him.

After that memorable summer with Spain, he received this trophy, which is bittersweet because he was hurt. 'Can we talk about Rodri?' was the banner that was unveiled at the Etihad Stadium during the September Inter match. The leg gave out four days later.

However, he is again in the news once more. When the holding midfielder who is supposed to play in the background gets the prize that is supposedly only given to the glory people, his manager and teammates can only smile. At last, Rodri is a topic of conversation in the football world.