Manchester City have set their asking price at €80m for the World Cup-winning midfielder, having already rejected two Barcelona offers — the most recent worth around €60m — as the two clubs remain some distance apart with the market deadline approaching.
Rodri's situation has been debated on and off since before the World Cup, and Manchester City's stance reflects a wider shift in the market: players entering the final year of their contract are no longer treated as a passport to a cut-price move, with City determined not to let their captain leave cheaply.
The last comparable case was Toni Kroos's move to Real Madrid, agreed for around €20m with his contract already counting down. Rodri's performances at the World Cup, where he was named one of four MVPs alongside Ferran Torres, Unai Simón and Pau Cubarsí, have only strengthened City's negotiating position and hardened their resolve to extract a substantial fee.
Beyond the transfer fee itself, the scale of the deal is what sets it apart. Barcelona have offered Rodri a four-year contract worth €15m net per season — which, factoring in Catalonia's tax regime, equates to roughly €34m gross annually and €136m across the full deal.
Add agent commissions and the transfer fee on top, and the total cost of the operation would comfortably exceed €210m, a figure Real Madrid have been able to avoid in their own big-money business this summer with deals for Yan Diomande and Marc Cucurella, players whose age and salary demands make them easier to amortise.
Real Madrid have separately been involved in a parallel case this summer, having lodged a €150m bid for Atlético Madrid's Julián Álvarez, seen as a potential striker option at Camp Nou. Atletico Madrid rejected the offer outright, but Real Madrid's move succeeded in driving up the Argentine's valuation regardless — a coincidence, or not, that has fuelled speculation about whether the two Madrid clubs are deliberately circling the same players on Barcelona's list of targets.
Real Madrid did make an approach for Rodri too, an interest that would have been welcomed at the Bernabéu, but the player's own preference for Barcelona closed off that route before it could develop.
Between the Rodri pursuit and the ongoing Álvarez saga, Barcelona could ultimately be looking at outlay approaching €500m this summer if both deals were to materialise — though for now, Rodri's transfer alone remains unresolved, with the two clubs yet to bridge a gap that has already forced Barcelona back to the negotiating table twice.