The Spain captain on his team’s chances in the World Cup semi-final, analysing every game so far and how to get the best out of Lamine Yamal.
“I’m not that bad,” Rodri Hernández says. It’s the morning after the World Cup’s 100th game and in a conference room at the Cotton Bowl where old posters line the walls and Spain are about to start their penultimate training session before the 101st match, their captain is doing the calculations. Even with the six in which he’s played and all the travel, from Atlanta to Guadalajara and Dallas to Los Angeles and back, 9,000 miles so far, he reckons he has watched the “immense majority”. More than anyone else here, anyway. “Some as a fan, teams we can’t face; others I analyse. But it’s not like I’m there with pen and paper,” he says. Then he cracks up and concedes: “But, yeah, I probably am the worst.”
They wouldn’t have it another way; he couldn’t have it any other way. This is who Rodri is: Ballon d’Or winner and business graduate from Castellón University. The kid who was on camp in the Connecticut woods, aged 14, when Spain last won the World Cup and the captain who aspires to lift the trophy again, back in the US 16 years on. The midfielder who sometimes seems like a de facto coach, analysing everything. The adult in the room, a leader aware of his responsibility. When Rodri talks, they listen. Sometimes they have to. And, oh, Rodri talks, a calm authority about him.
A hundred games in, there are conclusions to be drawn. The ball is fast, the pitches perfect, the stadiums incredible. And, above all, he says, unusually the four semi-finalists are actually the best teams here. “England v Argentina will be very, very close, two very different styles of football, but I would rather focus on ours,” he says, so he does. “France are one of the best teams here, in great form, but so are Spain. We can beat them, we’ve seen that at the Euros and in the Nations League.”
Like the game in Dallas on Tuesday, both of those were semi-finals. Last summer, Spain beat France 5-4 in the Nations League, which makes it sound closer than it really was: the selección led 5-1 with 11 minutes left. The summer before, Spain beat France 2-1 at Euro 2024. The omens get even better: the first time Rodri won anything with Spain – the 2015 Under-19 European Championship – they beat France in the semi-final, too. He and Mikel Merino were midfield partners that day in Katerini, Greece. Unai Simón was on the bench. Luis de la Fuente was coach. “Luis hasn’t changed at all,” Rodri says. “That’s where he began to build everything we see now.”
Rodri was 19 then; he is 30 now. This hasn’t been an easy season or tournament. It hasn’t been like the Europoean Championship, where Spain blew everyone away from the start, but Rodri trusts that things are coming together at the right time. That includes him: he admits that, following the torn cruciate ligament that forced him to hobble off the pitch at half-time in the Euro 2024 final in summer that year and hobble on to the stage with crutches to collect the Ballon d’Or that autumn, last season was about becoming himself again. Grateful for Manchester City’s understanding, slowly improving since arriving here, now he believes he is there.
“I feel good and I’m happy about the team’s growth, which is so important at tournaments,” Rodri says. “We’ve got the feel of things as we went, and now we’re in a good moment. I see a team that’s as competitive as [they were] at the Euros. The form people were in [when we arrived] is different, the physical condition. That’s why I kept saying it would be a long tournament, that we would have to ‘chew’ on it, become a good version of ourselves. We can see that now. If we can continue this progression, we can reach our level but what I would underline is how competitive this team is.
“France have great attacking qualities, but I’d also highlight their defensive strength. They defend well in a low block, they’re very physical, very aggressive. We’ll have to take the game to where we want it. It’s rare for any game to finish 5-4 like last year and we can’t allow that to fool us, to think this will be something it won’t. If only it could be like that! But I don’t think it will be. We’ll see a stronger team, harder to score against. World Cups are different. And I don’t know that an open game, a back-and-forth like that, suits us. We’ll have to control more. This is a big challenge against one of the teams playing the best and we’re looking forward to it.”
One man – one kid – left a huge mark on those matches and he seems destined to do so again. Lamine Yamal was 16 when he scored an outrageous goal in the semi-final as Spain went on to be crowned European champions. He was 17 last summer, when he scored twice more against France to reach the Nations League final. Tipped to be the star this summer, his impact hasn’t been so explosive here, so far. He keeps saying his time is coming, as if trying to convince himself too. On Monday, the day before facing France again, he turns 19.
“At 19, I would be in halls at university,” Rodri says. “There would be the occasional little party that I couldn’t possibly tell you about.” He is laughing now, but there is a serious point to be made: about exposure, pressure, expectation. At Lamine Yamal’s age, the European Championship that Rodri won was with the under-19s, in front of 3,812 people. He hadn’t made his Villarreal debut. Each day he would lug his bike on to the local train to head from lectures to training. His classmates didn’t know he was a footballer, let alone the entire world. When his wife-to-be found out, she kept him at arm’s length until one day, watching a cartoon together, she gave in. “Mine was a totally different ‘film’ to the one that Lamine is living,” he says.
“It’s life, it’s football,” Rodri adds, and it’s not always easy. “Lamine showed so much maturity at the Euros. He’s two years older now, and you’ve seen what he’s capable of, so maybe it doesn’t impress you so much. But at his age, two years on, I was just starting out. I hadn’t even played professionally yet. He’s a kid, he’s shown such maturity, but he still has things he can improve: in understanding the moments of the game, say. Which is normal because of his age. We all know the level he has.
“The manager said it best. The way to help Lamine is keep him calm. He needs to calm that anxiety, that urge, he sometimes has to show what he can do. He’s so important for us, with and without the ball. He’s an intelligent boy. But he’s 19 and there are times when you have to calm him in games. He has so much football inside that he wants to bring out; it’s about finding the right moment. Against France, we hope he can be important.”
Does he listen? It would be easy for an absurdly talented teenager to turn off, to not take too kindly to being told what to do. To think: here comes that pain in the arse again. “No, no, not at all, far from it,” Rodri says. “He always listens, he’s always prepared to improve, mature. He’s very self-critical, so demanding of himself. Wingers can sometimes get into that dynamic where it feels like referees aren’t blowing fouls on you and you tend to stop. I insist that he carries on. Don’t stop. He’s a boy who listens, who always wants to learn. He’s a role model.”
Nor is it just Lamine Yamal. Rodri is on top of all of them, more even than before. De la Fuente likes to repeat that the national team is a family, not so much made up of good players as good people. At the European Championship, leadership was shared by three men. Rodri was football. Dani Carvajal was competitiveness. Álvaro Morata was empathy. But Carvajal and Morata have departed, leaving Rodri with the arm band and a deeper sense of duty, a broader responsibility.
That’s seen in endless little details and in trying to bring together 26 players, many of whom do not play but all of whom contribute and can affect the group for better or worse. David Raya, Joan García, Eric García, Víctor Muñoz, Álex Grimaldo and Martín Zubimendi have not had a minute. Marc Pubill has had just four, Borja Iglesias two. Fabián Ruiz is a three-time champion of Europe for club or country, and has begun four games on the bench. Pedri was a substitute against Belgium. Merino has started only once; he has scored the winner two games running. “I’m not going to lie; it’s hard,” Grimaldo said.
“The figure of captain is important: leadership is vital on the pitch but especially off it,” Rodri says. “On the pitch, my role is practically the same: I’ve always tried to lead from my position. Off the pitch it’s the captain who lays out a path for the group. At times of doubt, it is down to him to bring calm to the group. I’ve tried to absorb what the dressing-room leaders did, those different roles. We miss Carva and Álvaro but I’m trying to communicate what I learnt from them.
“You try to be close to those players who aren’t playing. It’s a personal thing. We’ve all been through it, we know it’s part of football. You can’t say too much but you support them, keep them involved. Think how you would like to be treated and do the same. Important players don’t always have to start. The other day, Fabián starts and is spectacular, scoring. Then Pedri comes on and gives the team what it needed: that finesse, that stability. Mikel is an example.”
So here they are: 100 games down, four to go, the culmination of, well, everything really. Champions League, European Championship, Ballon d’Or … World Cup-winning captain? “The highest thing you can aspire to,” Rodri says. “That’s the challenge, and it’s only been done once in history.”
