Erling Haaland may have a late rival for Man City Player of the Year after Champions League win

It sums up Rodri's season that he was the man to win the Champions League for Manchester City.

Not goal machine Erling Haaland. Not talisman Kevin De Bruyne. Not captain Ilkay Gundogan, or homegrown fan favourite Phil Foden. Rodri.

The midfield general who has barely put a foot wrong. The only true 'undroppable' in a squad full of world-class players. When City were struggling (Rodri included), he stepped up and won the Champions League.

It was a goal as big, if not bigger, for City as Sergio Aguero's title-winner in 2012. That goal set City on their way to total dominance over English football for the next 11 years. This goal could do the same in European and World football for a club with no plans of stopping now.

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Without Rodri, City wouldn't have won the Premier League last year. His 95th-minute winner at Arsenal felt uncharacteristic, and his inch-perfect side-foot on the last day vs Aston Villa is often forgotten amid Ilkay Gundogan's brilliant brace. Even his stunner against Bayern Munich in this season's Champions League was a pivotal goal. He doesn't score goals that don't matter.

His finish vs Inter Milan sums up his quality, too. In the same shot, he managed to deftly bend a pass around two defenders and into the back of the net, while giving it enough force that it could be described as a thumping finish. It was control and skill worthy of the biggest stage, yet somehow also with the emphatic finish of seven years of frustration unleashed in a single moment.

Ironically, Rodri had one of his worst performances in some time against Inter. John Stones was more