Rodri on beating Vinicius Junior to win the Ballon d'Or

Back stage at the Theatre du Chatelet. Almost unreasonably dark and something charmingly dingy about the narrow corridor where actors run between scenes and opera singers take a breather.

It is thin, this thoroughfare. A squeeze. There are tens of people within the orbit of the world’s greatest footballer, Manchester City’s Rodri who is being given a safe passage out onto the red carpet leading to the balmy Paris streets at the end of a night when his life changed forever.

Dim blue spotlights are preventing complete darkness and the 19th century four-tiered playhouse on the bank of the Seine is, in its grand way, a suitable host for Rodri’s ascent to immortality.

Rodri is ready to go. Earlier in the night, he has appeared overcome with brief paralysis when George Weah read his name from an envelope. He sighs deeply before delivering an acceptance speech in Spanish. He’s had to talk about himself endlessly, and although this particular success gives him personal pride, it is never a favoured pastime.

Now it is one minute until midnight. The shimmering Ballon d’Or trophy is actually nowhere to be seen; presumably somebody among the melee is keeping it safe. ‘I’m really scared to open my phone,’ Rodri tells Mail Sport. ‘I’m going to be spending a month answering people.’

He wants to board the bus to his hotel with girlfriend Laura on their eighth anniversary and his family, to belt out “Rodri’s on fire” in peace. He’ll soon have his chance for that, just as his first club, Villarreal, are lighting up their ground, Estadi de la Ceramica, to commemorate the triumph.

Messages flood in – most notably from a couple of neighbours. Ilkay Gundogan writes a heartfelt post on social media, labelling him a perfect midfielder and revelling in this award not always ending up in the hands of an attacker.

Rodri is the first defensive midfielder ever to win, while Gundogan’s wife, Sara, says how a ‘really good person, humble and kind’ is richly deserving of the highest accolade. It is hard not to wonder whether her comments are in some way shaped by Real Madrid refusing to show up after becoming suspicious that Vinicius Junior may come a mere second behind a man who went 74 consecutive Manchester City matches unbeaten.

Those are the two topics of intrigue to the night. Real’s tempestuous boycott, which drew criticism from the Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente and left Vincent Garcia, the head of organisers France Football ‘unpleasantly surprised’. And why a No 6 has enchanted voters from across the globe.

Rodri believes the goals added to his game over the years have helped enormously yet still, this is a man who plays with his shirt tucked in and doesn’t do social media. He doesn’t really go for fashionable, has his style mercilessly mocked by teammates and is generally at odds with the glitz of Ballon d’Or night. He will always be the man who drove a second-hand Corsa while starring in La Liga. Eventually upgrading to an Audi at City – what decadence! - has probably gnawed away at him. If this award isn’t for him, equally he isn’t typically for it either.

‘I was in love with that deep midfield role as a kid,’ he adds to Mail Sport. ‘There were many players, like Bussy (Sergio Busquets), like Xabi Alonso. This is why I decided to play this role. My aim is that of course I’m not the same player, I try to do it my own way, but I wish the little kids who watch me want to be the same. That’s the most important thing in football, trying to translate to the kids.

‘I avoided social media, I didn’t need it. For me I understood how it could waste my time. I focused on what I wanted. But I don’t want everyone to follow the same steps as me. I understand others use it with the same results.’

Fame – rising exponentially since that winner in 2023’s Champions League final against Inter Milan – doesn’t appear especially easy for him to deal with. He doesn’t look at that platform with relish, although is becoming spokesman-like on issues surrounding player welfare.

And as success grows, he is giving little bits up to piece together a story of a life up to this point. An achievement of this magnitude offers an opportunity for reflection – aided somewhat by a double knee injury that will keep him out for the season – and there is a story he offers of the first few months during his time at Villarreal that gives a window into self-doubt he has coached out of himself. 

The sort of self-doubt he had to ignore when critics couldn’t envisage him taking over from Fernandinho as Pep Guardiola’s destroyer a season into life at City, categorising him as too slow. Now his brain is the quickest in the business.

‘When I was 17, I left home with my suitcases to Villarreal to live a dream,’ he recalls. ‘I called my dad crying telling him that it was all over, I had the feeling that this was the end and my father said I’d come all that way and told me to keep going. That changed my mindset. Here I am, a normal kid.

‘I remember that exact moment when I took my luggage, travelled away from the family house alone. Those moments you need to be resilient. I wasn’t performing well. I was 17 and you know, at that age, there is a guy Lamine Yamal who was nominated for the Ballon d’Or. And I was playing in the second or third division. I really thought my time was coming to an end. That call to my father was important. Now is when you remember those kind of things, the things people don’t know.’

What too has only recently emerged is how Rodri learnt English: at a summer camp in the Connecticut woods, eating s’mores (toasted marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched by crackers) and chucking American footballs around as a 14-year-old. Apparently his bunk-mates spotted him playing in La Liga on the TV years later and have followed his career since. One wrote a letter to him over the past month, which knocked Rodri for six.

In a positive sense, unlike the ACL and meniscus problems. Earlier at the ceremony, Rodri is struggling with the steps as the nominees walk out in pairs. He’s nervously faffing with his bow-tie. Didier Drogba, hosting the evening, goes to help him up once Weah reads out the winning name. 

Weah then presents the golden trophy to him, rather than allowing him to collect – as Aitana Bonmati has done. The black crutches are regularly taken by whoever is closest and then the tickertape comes down and there is time for more casual photographs on stage.

Rodri is philosophical about the next eight months or so, knowing that not doing this rehabilitation properly, cutting corners, will set him back further. ‘It’s obviously a bad injury and the first time in my career that I have to switch on to recover and not hurry to come back,’ he says.

‘I know how important it is to recover well with the amount of games we have. It would be a mistake to come back sooner just because I want to hurry up. The team is doing great, they are together and being resilient.’

They remain unbeaten without him, yet there have been some hairy moments. Rodri’s watching them all from his sofa.

‘They definitely made me feel desperate with the game at Wolves,’ Rodri laughs. ‘I was at home and very close to start running!’

A long road ahead requires navigating before that is a possibility but this Monday night in Paris is one to savour.