Real Madrid announced this Thursday the renewal of Rodrygo Goes until 2028 (his contract expired in June 2025) with a termination clause of one billion. The Brazilian, who will turn 23 on January 9, thus joins Vinícius, renewed on Tuesday until 2027. In the coming days Camavinga (20 years), Valverde (25 years) and Militão (25 years) will extend their contracts within of the generational replacement plan undertaken by the white club this season, in which it has also signed Jude Bellingham (20 years old), Arda Güler (18 years old), Fran García (24 years old) and Brahim (24 years old).
Rodrygo Goes arrived in Madrid in the summer of 2019 signed to Santos, to whom he paid 45 million euros in a risky bet due to the high amount. Madrid has looked a lot at the Brazilian market in recent times because it has a specialist in it, Juni Calafat, one of Florentino Pérez's trusted men. The bets have not always gone well. They got it right with players like Casimiro, Vinícius or Rodrygo, but there are also resounding failures, like Lucas Silva or Reinier.
Rodrygo has been with the team for five seasons in which he has never established himself as a starter, except in this campaign, despite generally offering good performance and having shown a lot of quality, especially having an electric dribble and being very vertical and a good finisher from the second line. His best season was 2021-22, in which his goals (two at the buzzer against Manchester City) put the team in the Champions League final in Paris.
Rodrygo has always been bothered by his lack of bodywork in a league as demanding as the Spanish one. Curiously, he is a striker who usually finds the net more in the Champions League than in the League. In Madrid he is a bit in the shadow of Vinícius, who acts as an older brother.
Unlike Vinícius, Rodrygo is a discreet footballer off the field and does not look for trouble on the pitch. He is rarely seen arguing with the opponent and even less so with the referees. He hardly protests or commits fouls. He is not very active on social networks and barely has a presence outside of football forums. There are few anecdotes about him. One of the most notable is the day of his presentation. At 18 years old, he is seen in photos carrying a little girl in his arms. Some media published that she was her daughter (he is not the first player to have children at a very young age). However, she was his sister. It was Rodrygo's parents who had the player at a very young age.
The current season is being complicated for Rodrygo and yet it is the one in which he has played the most as a starter when Benzema left the club against all odds. Madrid signed Joselu urgently, but Ancelotti prefers to play with Rodrygo as a center forward, a position that is not very popular with the Brazilian, who appreciates playing close to the wing more.
Rodrygo scored in the league debut in San Mamés on August 12 and did not score again until October 24 in Braga in the Champions League. In fourteen games, two goals and one assist seems like little baggage for a Real Madrid nine.
