Rodri: Manchester City pay £62.8m release clause for Atletico Madrid's Spain midfielder

Atletico Madrid midfielder Rodri — Rodri previously played for Atletico Madrid's youth set up before joining Villarreal

Manchester City are set to sign Spain midfielder Rodri from Atletico Madrid for a club record £62.8m after paying his release clause, say the La Liga side.

Atletico said the player's lawyers and representatives from City paid the release clause to La Liga on Wednesday.

Rodri, 23, has therefore terminated his contract with Atletico, which was due to run until June 2023.

It will beat City's previous record of £60m in signing Riyad Mahrez in 2018.

Rodri joined Atletico in May 2018 after three years at Villarreal and made 34 league appearances as they finished second in Spain's top flight.

He made his international debut in a friendly against Germany last year and has made six senior international appearances.

City had made Rodri one of their main targets this summer, with manager Pep Guardiola keen to sign a defensively minded player to bolster the Premier League champions' squad.

Angelino rejoins City

On Wednesday City announced that they have brought full-back Angelino back to the club from PSV Eindhoven.

The 22-year-old Spaniard left City for PSV Eindhoven in 2018 after failing to make a Premier League appearance in his six years with the club.

City inserted a £5.35m buy-back clause in the deal, a figure far below the Spaniard's market value given his form at PSV last season.

Guardiola has decided to activate the clause in order to bolster his options at left-back, which also include Oleksandr Zinchenko, who signed a long-term contract earlier this summer, and Benjamin Mendy, a £52m arrival from Monaco in 2017.

Angelino has signed a four-year deal which will keep him at Etihad Stadium until 2023.

Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.

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1346 comments

he is a very good player but how do this club still spend £100's millions season in and season out and get away with it?

All this and a half empty stadium and no outgoings player other than Vincent company on a free.

Great team but something isn't right.
Setting a new club record just a year after the previous record.

Until Uefa start taking action, its fair play rules will remain a joke.
Meanwhile, my team Norwich have to survive in the Prem with and overall budget of £20 million!
man city buying the league again. I guess the FFP rules don't apply to them
What about FFP
Im getting soooo sick and tired of the whole Man city concept. Buying the league year in year out, a smug, check book and vastly overrated manager.

If wasnt for abu dhabi theyd be sunderland!
Every week City have a bench worth 300 million. These clubs and their owners are ruining football. There is no real competitiveness anymore.
Quality signing again
Relief from a Wolves fan that they haven't bought Ruben Neves.
Here we go., only scraped the league by 1 point and were rubbish in the big one so they need to spend another £billion.
Come on Uefa , do your job.
100. As much as I dislike Liverpool in a rivalry sense, they're a proper club that don't buy players with free oil money funneled through fake sponsorship deals - i.e. they don't cheat the system. They also fill their stadium week in week out so get funds from gate receipts unlike the Emptihad.
No comparison.
Come on everyone get filling those cars up and help pay for him
Here we go again. City sign a player and everyone’s banging on about their spending.

If Man Utd get Maguire, they will have spent 140m this summer AND NOBODY SAYS A WORD. About it.

Man Utd spend a fortune every season, so the are no different whatsoever to the likes of city and Chelsea etc etc.
@24
"Do Man city have an endless money pit?"

Yup - if they need more money, they just ask daddy's oil business, sorry I meant "official sponsor" to send them a few more billion.
City don't buy Rodri ........" ah City made a mistake, they knew Fernandhino couldn't go on forever, poor management"

City buy Rodri........" ah look City splashing out and buying the league again, blah blah blah, blah"

Could not give one. Total trust in this clubs management, looking forward to more great football next season. CTID , CENTURIONS
What a player he is.
What a price....athleti are kicking themselves for setting the release clause so low. Of course, they never imagined he’d be leaving so soon after only rejoining them last summer.
Brilliant bit of business again by City. Club record still only £62.6m and a 23 year old player.
If United pay £90m for Maguire, I’ll be laughing my socks off.
Liverpool sign Van Dijk, Allison, Fabinho and Keita for a combined total of around £250m, no one says anything. United do the same with Pogba, Lukaku and Fred...nothing. City buy a player and they’re ‘buying the league’. Pathetic.

Truth is you can’t buy the league otherwise Liverpool would have won it last year seeing as though they spent the most.
10.
Champions of Europe that haven’t been Champions of England for 3 decades.
It would appear the school holidays have started early ?, city are nowhere near the biggest net spenders in recent seasons and have ducked out of several transfers due to the exorbitant fees quoted !! Also " the Arabs " fortune comes from several business outlets , oil being only about 20% of it ....now back to your crayoning you naughty bitter boys and girls !!
231. Liverpool Red

All you ‘neutral’ fans who want city to win above Liverpool. It’s only because your clubs have no chance of ever competing with them.

--

Actually, no. I think it has rather more to do with the arrogant attitude of Liverpool fans exemplified in what you've written above. We could easily be plastic and choose to 'support' Liverpool too. There's hardly an entry test.