No star player on Real Madrid has been mired in more transfer rumor and innuendo than star forward Rodrygo Goes, who, quite frankly, is no longer at star status at Real Madrid.
With the arrival of Kylian Mbappe, there was a narrative at the beginning of the season that left Rodrygo out of the spotlight, and teammates like Jude Bellingham were quick to point out to the media that the two-time Champions League winner was very much a vital part of the team.
But Rodrygo ended up being the odd one out with Mbappe starring, as the Brazilian international slumped to a flat-out unacceptable six goals and five assists in 22 starts and 30 total appearances as a Real Madrid starter.
Immediately before the season ended, there were already transfer rumors about Rodrygo, and there were even reports that he wanted to leave the club because his role with the team had been reduced so much over Mbappe’s first season in the Spanish capital.
Rodrygo exit rumors cooled off
The discussions regarding Rodrygo’s future would be held off until a meeting between the player and new manager Xabi Alonso, and after links to Premier League giants Arsenal and Chelsea, the Rodrygo rumors cooled after a seemingly positive day transpired between Alonso and Rodrygo.
We even had photographic evidence of the two training together and Rodrygo giving a famous thumbs up to the camera as if to tell the world, “No, I’m staying in Madrid and working with Alonso.”
Madridistas are waiting to see how long that lasts, and the Club World Cup promises to be an important tournament for Alonso to assess his players, including new defenders Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen, and make decisions on the future with those in precarious positions like Rodrygo.
According to a report from Cadena SER’s David Justo, Alonso is already setting clear groundrules to the team that nobody is above reproach. And it will be interesting to see how a seemingly disgruntled Rodrygo, who had always been a meek team player to this point, takes the other bit of news being reported out of Spain.
A test from Xabi Alonso
And that is, per Cadena SER, that Rodrygo isn’t going to be a starter for Real’s big-ticket Club World Cup opener against Saudi Pro League giants Al-Hilal, who have a hyped up new coach of their own in former Inter Milan man Simone Inzaghi.
Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior are slated to be the starting attacking duo for the Royal Whites on Wednesday afternoon at the Hard Rock Stadium in Lionel Messi’s sunny city of Miami.
The focus will be on those two, while Rodrygo will be relegated to the bench in Alonso’s first game as manager, snubbed by a man who says he has a key role planned for the 24-year-old next season despite the rumors stating otherwise.
This will, therefore, be set up as a test for Rodrygo. It’s a test to prove that he’s truly all in about Real Madrid, like he used to say, and simply won’t use his agents in the media to create more unrest in the rumor mill as a result of this apparent starting lineup snub.
And then it is also a test for Rodrygo, the hero late in the 2021/22 Champions League season against Manchester City, to make an impact off the bench and change the game in ways he simply wasn’t able to in the 2024/25 season under Carlo Ancelotti.
Rodrygo’s stock with Real Madrid has been low and is still at a low point despite the optimism generated by the Alonso hire. On merit, Rodrygo’s 2025 doesn’t deserve to have him as a starter, and now he has to fight his way back up the ladder. The snub was justified, and now it’s about how Rodrygo responds to Alonso on the pitch and works his way back up.
The editor of A Trip to Cibeles for Real Madrid, Joe Soriano helped manage The Real Champs covering Real Madrid as a dedicated writer from 2019 to 2022, making it one of the biggest team soccer sites on the web. He currently also runs the world soccer site The Trivela Effect, the Tottenham site Hotspur HQ, and a pro wrestling site called Let Them Wrestle.